Stages of Development and the uses of Planning
Some Nepali Experiences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8368656 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aran Schloss (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 1115-1127 |
| Publication date | 1983-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Survey (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-4687 • E-ISSN: 1533-838X |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2644203 |
| OpenAlex | W2021350285 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
In their development efforts, less developed countries (LDCs) often seek to relieve the uncertainty by which they are frequently characterized by adopting the technique of national planning. Such planning has proved successful in technologically advanced nations (such as the USSR), but it does not appear that LDCs have considered carefully whether they are equipped to implement it. In fact, planning among the LDCs has frequently been an exercise of little relevance to actual development operations, even when they have concentrated development efforts on a single sector or in a selected region of the country. Nevertheless, this sustained phenomenon has rarely caused the LDCs to abandon hope in the promise of planning or to cease the preparation of consecutive development plans.1 As LDCs gradually adopt planning, they experience a process that is implicit in the solution that planning is intended to offer and that serves, in practice, as a frame of reference for actual development activity. It is contended here that this process consists of three major stages, each characterized by a different use of planning activities and products (i.e., plans). In the first stage national planning is adopted but turns into a mere ritual that fails to lend itself to actual development activity. During this stage plans are prepared under conditions of insufficient data and acutely limited administrative capacity as well as amidst volatility in both the political system and the bureaucratic machinery. Consequently, not only are the plans unable to serve as a meaningful framework for action, but the circumstances surrounding the development effort undermine the translation of plans into practice. The actual development activities carried out during this stage are decided upon the basis of immediate and rapidly changing political opportunities
Business · Linguistics · Nepali · Political science · Process management · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |