developing countries can best begin with the specification of the development problems shared by those countries, the types of programs they have implemented in the attempt to solve those problems, and the success they have achieved in their solution. The first session of the conference was devoted to two aspects of that attempt to achieve such a specification.
and political structure as one of the most important variables in the development process. Furthermore, each of these three modifications in the traditional analysis of this process-objectives, measurement, .and obst~c1~s -improves the prospect for the incorporatIOn of C?ma s development experience into a framework that IS .analytically comparable with that of other developmg countries.
A single indicator of economic development The examples of India, Pakistan, and Indonesia In his paper on "Economic Development: Objectives Thomas E. Weisskopf's "Patterns of Economic Develand Obstacles," Amartya Sen holds that the most comopment in India, Pakistan, and Indonesia," turns dimonly used indicators for quantifying economic develrectly to an examination of the empirical record of the opment in the developing countries-the level and ra~e results of development efforts in an attempt to deterof growth of per capita GNP-fail to reflect the baSIC mine the extent to which non-Chinese approaches have objectives of economic development. Furthermore, they been successful in achieving their objectives. Weisskopf have corrupted our view of the economic development also seeks to explain the differences among the results process so as to cause us to lose sight of the more. im!'orof the development efforts of these three countries. Altant obstacles to the achievem!!nt of those obJectives. though he does not explicitly compare the rec~rd ~f Sen argues that these objectives should be derived from these countries with that of China, that companson IS the common interests and aspirations of the people of implicit in his discussion because of the success indithe Third World. He recognizes that many of the basic cators presented and the record of the particular counobjectives he identifies are difficult to quantify, but .he tries he selects as representative of the non-Chinese apsuggests a means of tying together in a single success Inproach. . dicator those related to the size, distribution, and exTo explain the difference between the results achIeved pected duration of per capita income, the prevalence of by these countries as a whole and by China, W~issko.pf poverty, and the frequency of disasters. points to the significant differences between theIr. socIal A single indicator such as that suggested by Sen oband political structures and the absence of revolutlOnary viously allows for a more meaningful comparison of changes in the non-Chinese Asian countries after World economic growth among the countries of the Third War II. Weisskopf also describes other characteristics World, including China, than an "unadjusted" measure which the three non-Chinese Asian countries share. All of growth in per capita GNP. More important-because three-again unlike China-are former colonies that it is much more indicative of the true objectives of ecogained their independence following World War II and nomic development-Sen's proposed success indicator all have a mixed capitalist economic system with extenmakes more evident the obstacles to the achievement of sive rights of private property. Although they have enthose objectives. These include the traditional obstacles countered different problems and achieved different dewhich have been identified in the existing literature on grees of success in the development of national integraeconomic development. Sen's proposed success indicator tion and parliamentary democracy, they also share co~足 also draws attention to what he believes is the obstacle mon political institutions. Finally, all three countnes that is central to the problem of economic development contain considerable ethnic heterogeneity. Given these in the Third World: the need for the resolution of concommon characteristics, Weisskopf believes, as did flicts among the different interest groups within these Myrdal in his study of the countries of South Asia,2 that societies. any differences in the results of their development .efforts Thus, Sen's redefinition of the objectives of economic can be traced to differences in their social, economIC, and development so as to make them common to all the political institutions and policies. developing countries, his suggested means for measurWeisskopf selects several different and separate te~ts ing the achievement of those objectives so as to allow for measuring the success of the development efforts m for a more meaningful comparison of the results both these three countries: the growth of total, sectoral, and among countries and within a single country over per capita output; quantitative measures of food contime, and his identification of the major obstacle to the achievement of those objectives all identify the social 2 Gunnar Myrda1. A.sian Drama (New York: Pantheon. 1968). 26
VOLUME
31,
NUMBER
3