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SELECT CONCEPTS ON DEVELOPMENT

 

 

 

    a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions

    the movement away from a condition of life widely perceived as unsatisfactory toward a situation regarded as materially and spiritually "better"

    the advancement of people's capacity to collectively define their goals and aspirations, improve or advance the means to achieve these, and the process itself of  pursuing such goals and aspirations (Definition being  proposed by A. Boquiren since 1994)

 

 

    In addition to being concerned with the efficient allocation of scarce resources and their sustained growth over time, development economics deal with the economic, social, political, and institutional mechanisms (both public and private) necessary to bring about rapid and large-scale improvements in levels of living

    Thus, more than political economy and traditional classical economics, development economics, from the standpoint of both economic theory and methodology, is concerned with the economic, cultural, and political requirements for affecting rapid structural and institutional transformation of entire societies in a manner that will most efficiently bring the fruits of economic progress to the broadest segments of their population.

    It is also the appllication of mainstream economic theories and models in the analysis of development issues.

 

 

    although much of development economics is normative,   positivistic analysis is an integral part of the discipline

    with the parameters defined on what constitute development, measures could be devised or designed to find out "what is"

    

 

    economic problems arise not only from economic but also from non-economic variables. Thus, economics and development problems must also be viewed from a much broader perspective than that postulated by traditional economics

    economic problems and development issues must also be analyzed from the perspective of "social" or "economic" systems. Even if we use the tools and models in economics for analyzing development issues, we keep in mind this point and obtain inputs from other disciplines in analyzing development issues.

 

 

    "development"  implies certain that certain things are desirable. It implies judgment and valuation. It implies what ought to be.

    the mere categorization that certain things are "problems" implies what ought to be.

    scarcity of resources implies that priorities must be made based on a set of goals constituting what ought to be

    in some cases, even seemingly "positive" questions are essentially normative questions because "what is" sometimes requires value judgment

 

REFERENCE: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, latest edition, Edition by Michael Todaro (the above is a  reformulated version by Prof. Art Bouqiren, UP Baguio 17 November 2003)