Economic Development Analysis and Development Administration
| Date | 01 December 1973 |
| Author | Rogerio F.S. Pinto |
| Published date | 01 December 1973 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085237303900406 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Economic
Development
Analysis
and
Development
Administration
UDC. :
330.114.2 :
35.06
by
Rogerio
F.S.
PINTO,
Specialist
Administrative
Study
Unit,
Department
of
Economic
Affairs,
Organization
of
American
States
I.
INTRODUCTION
Perhaps
the
most
fashionable
object
of
con-
cern
of
contemporary
social
sciences
is
the
complex
process
through
which
human
societies
depart
from
tradition
and
enter
into
modernity.
The
need
for
an
interdisciplinary
approach
to
study
the
multiple
changes
in
the
relationships
among
the
various
spheres
of
social
life
in-
herent
in
the
transformations
of
development,
is
widely
recognized.
Accordingly,
theoretical
and
research
efforts
are
under
way
to
provide
an
integrated
understanding
of
development,
drawing
on
the
tools
and
methodologies
of
political
science,
economics,
sociology,
psycho-
logy,
etc.
(1).
Even
in
the
realm
of
profes-
sional
practise,
where
economic
analysts
prevail,
there
is
increasing
appreciation
of
the
multi-
faceted
nature
of
development,
and
for
the
potential
applicability
of
interdisciplinary
ap-
proaches.
Although
very
explicative
and
revealing
of
the
nature
of
development,
these
various
inte-
gral
approaches
have
not
sufficiently
elucidated
the
purposeful
mechanisms
applied
by
those
nations
engaged
in
a
deliberate
development
effort,
based
on
the
authoritative
leadership
of
their
public
sectors.
While
economic
devel-
opment
theory,
especially
its
public
economics
branch,
does
concern
itself
with
the
role
of
the
public
sector
in
the
deliberate
development
efforts
of
nations,
the
conventional
treatment
of
the
subject
by
Latin
American
development
analysts,
is
often
misleading
(2).
The
inade-
quacy
of
the
treatment,
by
current
development
analysis,
as
discussed
below,
is
predicated
on
the
inability
of
the
latter
to
provide
the
neces-
sary
concepts
and
analytical
framework
to
explicate
the
institutional
complexities
of
devel-
opment
policy
implementation
on
the
one
hand,
and
its
managerial
implications,
on
the
other.
It
is
further
submitted
throughout
this
study
that
the
germs
of
an
analysis
with
these
capa-
bilities
are
to
be
found
in
the
emerging
field
of
development
administration,
which
is
often
controverted
in
its
potential
to
contribute
to
the
understanding
and
formulation
of
develop-
ment.
The
specific
purpose
of
this
study
is,
there-
fore,
to
review
the
economic
implications
of
those
institutional
aspects
most
often
referred
to
in
economic
development
theory,
especially
as
relating
to
the
role
of the
public
sector
in
development.
Hopefully,
the
findings
and
queries
emerging
from
this
exercise
will
suggest
further
theoretical
refinements
on
the
one
hand,
and
on
the
other
assist
practitioners
in
devising
institutional
mechanisms
capable
of
carrying
development
policy
to
its
purposeful
conse-
quences.
(1)
The
interdisciplinary
approach
to
development
has
not
emerged
from
theoretical
developments
in
the
field
of
economic
development,
but
in
the
fields
of
comparative
government
and
development
admin-
istration.
Among
the
long
retinue
of
such
works,
some
outstanding
are:
Fred
Riggs,
Administration
in
Developing
Countries :
The
Theory
of
Prismatic
Societies,
Houghton
Mifflin,
Boston,
1964;
Almond,
Gabriel
and
Bingham
Powel,
Comparative
Politics :
A
Developmental
Approach,
Little
Brown,
Boston,
1966,
and
LaPalombara,
Joseph
(ed.),
Bureaucracy
and
Political
Development,
Princeton
University
Press,
1963;
E.E.
Hagen,
On
the
Theory
of
Social
Change :
How
Economic
Growth
Begins,
Dorsey
Press,
Home-
wood
111,
1962;
Ralph
Braibanti
and
J.
Spengler
(eds.),
Tradition,
Values
and
Socio-Economic
Devel-
opment,
Duke,
Durham
N.C.,
1961.
Samuel
P.
Huntington,
Political
Order
in
Changing
Societies,
Harvard
Press,
Cambridge
Mass.,
and
David
Apter,
The
Politics
of
Modernization,
University
of
Chigago
Press,
1965,
(2)
An
exhaustive
review
of
the
literature
was
not
conducted
for
the
purposes
of
this
study.
However,
recurrent
references
are
made
to
the
leading
texts
and
readers
in
the
field,
and
the
conceptual
patterns
and
tendencies
are
quite
consistent.
Evidence
of
the
current
state
of
applied
development
analysis
is
provided
by
the
author’s
own
professional
exposure
within
a
staff
of
economic
analysts.
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