Policy Options

In the previous chapter we argued (i) that technical change is not identical to progress, and that the latter has little meaning unless values are specified; (ii) that scant progress has occurred in the agricultural regions of most underdeveloped countries, in the sense that inequality has not diminished and the income of small peasants and the rural landless labour force has increased in general only slightly, and in some areas not at all; (iii) that because of the narrow class or factional support on which most governments depend, the range within which policies can be varied normally is rather restricted; but (iv) that those groups which are harmed by technical change can be expected to try to protect their interests by operating either through existing institutions of, if necessary, outside the established law. Thus the role of public policy in the processes of growth and development must be kept in perspective. Although in principle acts of government policy can be powerful, in practice they may not always be so — not because government policies are intrinsically weak, but because the capacity and willingness of governments radically to alter previous decisions is limited.