SIR,—As a composite social phenomenon, the pro-. cess of economic
development and ultimate growth has always been something of a mystery. Even today, we grope and hope. Perhaps the day will come when the dynamics of economic, social, politi- cal and psychological interaction will be clearly understood. Until then, it is misleading, if not a little presumptuous, to discuss economic progress as if reliable techniques were already available for its promotion. Least of all is it possible to appeal to any generally accepted body of scientific thought on the basis of which large-scale compulsion could be safely prescribed.
It is against such a background that the corre-
spondence in your columns on development problems is best evaluated.
The poor will not be helped by reducing the vast areas of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia to the status of economic laboratories, where the diverse forms of comprehensive compul- sion inspired by current development ideology may be tested. Profound improvements in the social sciences will have to be realised before any form of widespread compulsion becomes worthy of such extraordinary deference.
It is still not known whether compulsion—and, if so, what kind of compulsion—is capable of eliciting the complex of social and economic atti- tudes ,desirable domestically for sustained economic progress. What is probably better known is that whenever unrelenting obedience is enforced ignorance both in those who obey and in those who command is likely in the long run, as neither have adequate occasion to deliberate, to doubt and thus to reason.
This is not to say that the usefulness of compul- sion is always negligible. The implication is rather that the emphasis must rest elsewhere. Unfortu- nately, it has yet to be discovered exactly where.
NICOS E. DEVLETOOLOU
London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2
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