Development Strategies Reconsidered (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 235 Netanyahu's well-defined remedies for the terrorist plague involve an absolute policy, consistent over time and coordinated among allies led by the United States. He argues first and foremost for a strict policy of nonaccommodation, backed when necessary by military force, and including the possibility of limited preemptive strikes against states that support terrorism. Political and economic measures he feels are useful in stopping terrorism include breaking formal diplomatic relations with states linked irrefutably to terrorist activities, applying strict economic sanctions, withdrawing aid, and revoking aircraft landing rights. In this way offending governments can be effectively isolated from the civilized international community. He also suggests making "neutralism" on the issue of international terrorism a costly position and notes that the media possesses tremendous power over terrorists, which journalists should exercise by refusing to clothe them in the garb of political legitimacy. Netanyahu's argument is concrete, consistent, and brilliantly reasoned. Whether or not you accept his premises and prescriptions, they provide the spark for the discussion that could lay the foundation for concerted action. Netanyahu's bottom line is that defeating terrorism is a question of political will. If nations can unite and subordinate commercial and political interests to the battle against terrorism, they can succeed. Courage is the key. Development Strategies Reconsidered. Edited byJohn P. Lewis and Valeriana Kallab. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1986. 182 pp. $19.95/cloth. Reviewed by Donald E. Jacobson, M.A. candidate, SAIS. Economic development has meant different things to different people over the past thirty-five years. For some it has meant promoting import-substitution policies, which may be associated with democratic or populist regimes with redistributional tendencies. For others, development has meant programs of export-promotion, which are often accompanied by elitist authoritarian governments and growth-before-distribution policies. For still others, development has meant absolutely nothing. In Development Strategies Reconsidered, a study by the Overseas Development Council, recent trends in development theory are discussed by some of the most respected practitioners in the field. The essays in this study, including pieces by Irma Adelman, Jagdish Bhagwati , John Mellor, and coeditor John P. Lewis, among others, are generally interesting and readable. This is not, however, nor was it meant to be, a volume of revolutionary solutions for the problems of underdevelopment. Rather, it is an update on the development of development literature. In his chapter, "Development Promotion: A Time for Regrouping" Lewis gives a brief history of development planning, as well as a summary of the arguments against promoting development at all. Not surprisingly, he brings us to the conclusion that it is very worthwhile to pursue development. Few of his arguments are compelling, but they are indeed stronger than the rationalizations for cutting off development assistance. Some facts do have force, however: there has been admirable growth in many underdeveloped countries, and we have also learned a great deal from the mistakes of the past three decades. 236 SAIS REVIEW Lewis sets the stage for the other writers, who proceed to reflect on Lewis's statement that much of today's thinking on development is a result of a dialectical process over the past thirty-five years. Irma Adelman confronts the problem of growth versus distribution. Many authors have professed that distribution cannot occur if there is nothing to distribute. Others have argued that "growth first" leads to a vicious cycle of higher and higher levels of capital-intensive industrialization . Adelman reasons that growth and equity can occur simultaneously if the poor are given access to high-productivity jobs before growth actually begins. Adelman has faith that agricultural development can lead industrialization . So does John Mellor, but he delves into the issue more deeply than does Adelman. Mellor feels that the the "Green Revolution," which increased agricultural productivity dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s, may do much to help industrialization, provided national governments play a key role in developing human resources and obtaining capital for infrastructure. Several of the remaining articles deal with the relationship between developing economies and the governments that ostensibly set economic policy for them. Bhagwati defends the export-promotion policies that he helped shape. In response to complaints that export-promotion seems to...