Development planners are sometimes accused of having too much
confidence in their own activities and plans. The economic planner
in particular is - even in the eyes of some 6f his fellow developers -
a somewhat suspect individual, who has fallen in love with the
techniques of quantitative economic analysis and policy making,
who has been blinded to the intangible but profound differences in
socio-cultural and political environment by his predilection for
quantifiable economic relationships - a man, in short, who talks so
often and so loudly about his equations and parameters, his ratios,
percentages, and GNP estimates, that scientific modesty or a sense
of inadequacy seem to be alien to his thinking and behaviour.
I am sure that I will not surprise the audience when I say that to
me the above picture is a caricature rather than a portrait of the
economic planner. As always is the case with ~ caricature, there is
some truth in it - though not necessarily much. However that may
be, this is not the proper occasion to discuss-this point further, for
the simple reason that an inaugural address is a monologue in its
very nature. Perhaps I can weaken the impression that development
planners behave as if they knew the answers to all questions by
choosing as the starting point of my short expose a plan, a set of
policy proposals, that is not going to be realized. Therefore, I should
like to ask your attention for the Plan that failed. The plan concerned
is formed by the proposals for action formulated and accepted
by the United Nations at the beginning of the Development
Decade.
Publication date
09/01/1967
Field of study
Development planners are sometimes accused of having too much
confidence in their own activities and plans. The economic planner
in particular is - even in the eyes of some 6f his fellow developers -
a somewhat suspect individual, who has fallen in love with the
techniques of quantitative economic analysis and policy making,
who has been blinded to the intangible but profound differences in
socio-cultural and political environment by his predilection for
quantifiable economic relationships - a man, in short, who talks so
often and so loudly about his equations and parameters, his ratios,
percentages, and GNP estimates, that scientific modesty or a sense
of inadequacy seem to be alien to his thinking and behaviour.
I am sure that I will not surprise the audience when I say that to
me the above picture is a caricature rather than a portrait of the
economic planner. As always is the case with ~ caricature, there is
some truth in it - though not necessarily much. However that may
be, this is not the proper occasion to discuss-this point further, for
the simple reason that an inaugural address is a monologue in its
very nature. Perhaps I can weaken the impression that development
planners behave as if they knew the answers to all questions by
choosing as the starting point of my short expose a plan, a set of
policy proposals, that is not going to be realized. Therefore, I should
like to ask your attention for the Plan that failed. The plan concerned
is formed by the proposals for action formulated and accepted
by the United Nations at the beginning of the Development
Decade