Thinking about development

Abstract

In these lectures Paul Streeten provides a major statement on his approach to the development problem. The principal theme of the lectures is that human development, not simply income growth, should be the focus of all strategies to eradicate hunger and poverty in the world. His argument allots an important role to reformed government, both in providing social services and in facilitating the functioning of markets, in opposition to the prevailing view that minimal government is more often than not the optimal solution. He also outlines a normative political economy--how to mobilize reformist alliances, how to use interest groups, how to harness coalitions--in the pursuit of effective development.