Planning Problems in the "Third World"

Is it worthwhile for the liberated countries to try to plan the process of economic development? Several decades ago, this question was the subject of animated debate in both scientific and political circles. At the beginning of the sixties, life itself removed this question from the agenda: over seventy countries of the "third world" adopted national planning programs of development. But discussion on the problems of planning in the developing countries is no less acute. The fact of the matter is that a very large number of planning programs have not justified the hopes placed in them. Why has this been the case? In the opinion of some specialists, the reason must be sought in the shortcomings of the selected forms and methods of planning. Others see the root of the evil in the weakness of the organizational and administrative apparatus. A third group believes that one cannot expect the plans to be effective if extensive socioeconomic reforms are not carried out simultaneously.