HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A LONG AND WINDING ROAD.

HISTORY, REGULATIONS AND CASE LAW

DESARROLLO HUMANO: UN LARGO Y SINUOSO CAMINO. HISTORIA, NORMAS Y

JURISPRUDENCIA

Por M. Cecilia Recalde

(∗)

ABSTRACT: the rise and evolution of the idea of human development was not an easy way to go. It

took decades to shape the concept. Contributions of philosophers, lawyers, economists and

international organizations were key to this job. Its recognition as a fundamental right began to take

place particularly by the mid-1980s due to UN’s Declaration on the Right to Development. From then

on, human development is present in almost every UN document, mainly in UNDP’s Annual Reports.

Besides, several nations have included the right to development in their constitutions. Thus, human

development has been acquiring a technical and normative content which must be studied not only

from the global perspective of human rights, but from the one of the obligations of the States, as well.

KEY WORDS: Human development - Historical evolve - Progress - Underdevelopment - Economic

development - Human development sceptics

RESUMEN: El surgimiento y la evolución de la idea del desarrollo humano no ha sido un camino

fácil. Tomó décadas dar forma al concepto. Las contribuciones de filósofos, juristas, economistas y

organizaciones internacionales han sido clave en esta tarea. Su reconocimiento como un derecho

fundamental comenzó a tener lugar particularmente a mediados de la década de 1980, debido a la

Declaración de la ONU sobre el Derecho al Desarrollo. A partir de entonces, el desarrollo humano está

presente en casi todos los documentos de la ONU, principalmente en los informes anuales del PNUD.

Además, varias naciones han incluido el derecho al desarrollo en sus Constituciones. De allí que el

desarrollo humano ha adquirido un contenido técnico y normativo que debe ser estudiado no sólo

desde la perspectiva global de los derechos humanos, sino también desde las obligaciones de los

Estados.

Article receipt: March, 2nd 2020; article approved: April, 20th 2020. The ideas included in this study

have their origin in the author´s doctoral thesis, presented and approved at the Catholic Argentine University,

School of Law, in October, 2016. Later on, part of that investigation was published in Buenos Aires, in Spanish,

by Editorial Astrea (January, 2019), under the title El desarrollo como derecho humano. Normas nacionales y documentos

internacionales. Jurisprudencia de tribunales superiores y regionales (ISBN 978-987-706-256-4). The complete extension of

its analysis will be carried out in different volumes of this scientific publication.

(∗)

M. Cecilia Recalde is an experienced constitutional lawyer and an academic leader. She is a well-known

author and professor on constitutional and human development issues. She is Main Professor at Constitutional

Law and Human Rights in Argentina, at several Schools of Law, both in pre-graduate and post-graduate courses.

In addition, she received her bachelor of law degree in 1991 from Universidad Católica Argentina, and obtained

her LLM degree in 1997 from Universidad Austral (Argentina), and her PhD degree in 2016 from Universidad

Católica Argentina.

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PALABRAS CLAVES: Desarrollo Humano – Evolución histórica – Progreso – Subdesarrollo - Desarrollo

económico – Escépticos del desarrollo humano

Artículo publicado bajo Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-No Comercial-Sin Derivar. ©

Universidad Católica de Córdoba

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.22529/rdm.2020(2)01

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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A LONG AND WINDING ROAD.

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FOREWORD

Far from what it may seem, the rise and evolution of the idea of human development was

not an easy way to go. It took decades to shape the concept. Contributions of philosophers,

lawyers, economists and international organizations were key to this job.

Its recognition as a fundamental right began to take place particularly by the mid-1980s

due to UN’s Declaration on the Right to Development. From then on, human development is

present in almost every UN document, mainly in UNDP’s Annual Reports.

Besides, several nations have included the right to development in their constitutions.

Thus, human development has been acquiring a technical and normative content which

must be studied not only from the global perspective of human rights, but from the one of the

obligations of the States, as well.

The aim of these chapters is to review the origin, evolution, regulation and case law

regarding human development as a human right.

Quite many countries have expressly undertaken the responsibility to provide for human

development. Nevertheless, according UN, to the present day millions of human beings still

suffer evitable illnesses, extreme poverty, substandard housing conditions, malnutrition or

undernourishment, illiteracy, child mortality, insecurity, etc.

If it is correct –as the following pages state– that there is a fundamental right to human

development, these facts must be reversed. We are all responsible for making it happen.

Concepts and regulations have already been set. They must be taken into practice.

From this perspective, the following chapters intend to supply the means to know this

right and its scope, to realize the national and international responsibilities that have been

assumed, as well as the role that both governing and governed must play in its fulfilment.

I chose to borrow Paul McCartney’s title

, because when analysing the history and

regulation on human development it seems difficult to understand why this fundamental right

is still so far away from concretion in so many corners of the World.

A lot has been done and achieved, and yet it is evident that we have a long way to go; and

it does not seem to be an easy one. It has proved to be a difficult path to cover: there are no

shortcuts, no smooth routes, no highways.

It is a long and winding road (thank you, Paul!).

“The long and winding road” is a song included in The Beatles’ album “Let it be” (Apple, 1970). It was written

by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon-McCartney.

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PART A: Defining key concepts

I. Introduction.

Even if it is not easy to establish when it was that different thinkers began to use the ideas

of progress, development, and human development in their works, most authors agree on three main

guidelines:

i) The idea of progress, as we understand it nowadays, finds its roots in the western

world. That does not mean that people elsewhere did not have a notion of

improvement, evolution or progress, but that the formulation or enunciation of

that concept in itself, in the sense we use it today, happened in that part of the

Globe.

ii) The idea of development arose quite later, and the idea of human development, still later

on.

iii) UN has played a key role during the most recent stages of the formulation of the

ideas of development and human development, role that has led to the

implementation of international standards and regulations

The aim of this Part A is to deal with the origins, evolution and contents that the ideas of

progress, development and human development have had over time.

Nevertheless, this purpose does not pursue neither to exhaust nor to deepen the ideas of

each author, as that would far exceed both my basic knowledge and the goal of this

publication.

It is just an outline to understand the evolution that non juridical sciences have gone

through on regarding these ideas.

II. The first ideas referred to progress.

Establishing the origin of the idea of progress is a job that is intimately linked to the

meaning that each author gives to that concept. Thus, different opinions set the birth of the

idea at different times.

ISBET and EDELSTEIN argue that that genesis can be found back in Ancient Greek

writers (N

ISBET, 1979; EDELSTEIN, 1967).

URY claims that it was ST. AUGUSTINE the first one to introduce a technical meaning of

progress (B

URY, 1920).

Nisbet, R. “The Idea of Progress” in Liggio, L. (ed.) “Literature of Liberty. A Review of Contemporary Liberal

Thought”, Vol. II, Nº 1, January/March 1979, pp. 7/37, Institute for Human Studies, Fairfax, EE.UU.; Edelstein,

L. “The Idea of Progress in Classical Antiquity”, John Hopkins Press, 1967; Bury, J. “The Idea of Progress. An

inquiry into its origin and growth”, Macmillan and Co. Limited, St. Martin’s Street, London, 1920; Cowen, M.P. y

Shenton, R. W. “Doctrines of Development” Routledge, New York, 1996. Rist, G. “The History of

Development. From Western Origins to Global Faith”, 3rd. edition, Zed Books, London, 2008.

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Another thesis held by COWEN and SHENTON (1996) and by RIST (2008) states that this

concept began to settle down during a far later stage, due to the writings of French thinkers

from the XVI century onwards. R

IST adds that the idea of development emerged after World

War II.

a) Progress in Greece and Rome.

Those who affirm that the idea of progress was not ignored in Ancient Greece note that

ESIOD had already expressed in his Works and Days the conviction that mankind was able to

transform reality in order to improve its situation, and thus be able to return to the golden age

during which nothing altered moral virtue and universal happiness. In that way they argue that

it was H

ESIOD who first laid out the concept of progress (NISBET, 1979; EDELSTEIN, 1967;

ODDS, 1973; TEGGART, 1947).

These authors claim that what H

ESIOD started was followed by a long line of classic

thinkers such as X

ENOPHANES who in the VI century B.C. pointed out that at the beginning

gods had not revealed everything to men but that they had found, by their own means and

over time, those things that were better for them.

ROTAGORAS is added to the list, as he expressed his conviction that the history of

mankind is the story of its fights to break free from original ignorance, fear, sterility and

inculture and, in that way, it is the story of a gradual ascent to better living conditions, as a

result of the improvement of knowledge.

LATO is also mentioned. In his writings, especially in Dialogues and The Politian (257a-

311c), this philosopher outlined a picture of the advances of mankind since its dark beginnings

to the most sublime peaks of thought, as well as in the Third Book of The Laws in which he

presented an even more detailed scheme of progress since the state of nature to higher levels

of culture, economy and politics (676a-702e).

According to N

ISBET, ARISTOTLE too delineated a progressive line of human history,

which began with mankind in familiar relationships and evolved into towns and

confederations, to finally reach the political State (N

ISBET, 1979, pp. 11/12).

Nevertheless, C

OWEN and SHENTON argue that even if it is true that evidences of gradual

growth of human civilization could not have been unfamiliar to the sharp eye of the Greeks,

who must had admitted some notion of relative progress, the ancient legend of the golden age

was generally accepted and, thus, so was the idea that as from then mankind was living in a

period of inevitable degeneration and decay. That, together with the cyclic historical theory,

prevented a clear idea of progress to emerge (C

OWEN and SHENTON, 1996, p. viii; BURY, 1920,

pp. 7/13).

As for Roman thinkers, L

UCRETIUS’ De Rerum Naturawritten in I century B.C. might be the

most important description of human progress –in the sense of a systematic and developed

knowledge– that can be found among classic authors. S

ENECA must be mentioned, too. In his

Natural Questions and Moral Lettershe introduced ideas, observations and experiments in which

the idea of progress can be clearly perceived.

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b) SAINT AUGUSTINE.

According to B

URY (1920, pp. 14 ff.), ST. AUGUSTINE was the first author who

emphatically insisted on an ecumenical idea, on the concept of a history of mankind and,

therefore, was the first one who introduced a technical idea of progress. The fact of

incorporating God’s action in history allowed him to break the Greek idea of cycles and to

think about a lineal development of human events that had to tend to an ultimate end.

A clear illustration of such a statement is the title of chapter 17 of Book XII of The City of

God: “What defence is made by sound faith regarding God's unchangeable counsel and will,

against the reasonings of those who hold that the works of god are eternally repeated in

revolving cycles that restore all things as they were”

, or that of chapter 20 of the same Book:

“Of the impiety of those who assert that the souls which enjoy true and perfect blessedness,

must yet again and again in these periodic revolutions return to labour and misery”.

It was him who also raised the idea of a division of historical time in stages, even when it

is not simple to identify them all through his work

ISBET claims that AUGUSTINE’S contribution to these ideas was the most important

during that period because it allowed to think of a progress of mankind and of a final moment

In that chapter the author says: “…they say it must be that the same things are always repeated, and that as they

pass, so they are destined always to return, whether amidst all these changes the world remains the same —the

world which has always been, and yet was created,— or that the world in these revolutions is perpetually dying

out and being renewed; otherwise, if we point to a time when the works of God were begun, it would be believed

that He considered His past eternal leisure to be inert and indolent, and therefore condemned and altered it as

displeasing to Himself. Now if God is supposed to have been indeed always making temporal things, but different

from one another, and one after the other, so, that He thus came at last to make man, whom He had never made

before, then it may seem that He made man not with knowledge (for they suppose no knowledge can

comprehend the infinite succession of creatures), but at the dictate of the hour, as it struck him at the moment,

with a sudden and accidental change of mind. On the other hand, say they, if those cycles be admitted, and if we

suppose that the same temporal things are repeated, while the world either remains identical through all these

rotations, or else dies away and is renewed, then there is ascribed to God neither the slothful ease of a past

eternity, nor a rash and unforeseen creation. And if the same things be not thus repeated in cycles, then they

cannot by any science or prescience be comprehended in their endless diversity. Even though reason could not

refute, faith would smile at these argumentations, with which the godless endeavour to turn our simple piety from

the right way, that we may walk with them in a circle. But by the help of the Lord our God, even reason, and that

readily enough, shatters these revolving circles which conjecture frames. For that which specially leads these men

astray to refer their own circles to the straight path of truth, is, that they measure by their own human,

changeable, and narrow intellect the divine mind, which is absolutely unchangeable, infinitely capacious, and

without succession of thought, counting all things without number”.

For example, towards the end of The City of God, the Bishop of Hippo states: “This Sabbath shall appear still

more clearly if we count the ages as days, in accordance with the periods of time defined in Scripture, for that

period will be found to be the seventh. The first age, as the first day, extends from Adam to the deluge; the

second from the deluge to Abraham, equalling the first, not in length of time, but in the number of generations,

there being ten in each. From Abraham to the advent of Christ there are, as the evangelist Matthew calculates,

three periods, in each of which are fourteen generations, one period from Abraham to David, a second from

David to the captivity, a third from the captivity to the birth of Christ in the flesh. There are thus five ages in all.

The sixth is now passing, and cannot be measured by any number of generations …” (XXII:30).

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on Earth –utopian but unavoidable– as well as of a vision of a future stage of beatitude

ISBET, 1979, pp. 13/14)

III. The Middle Ages.

After S

T. AUGUSTINE the idea of progress would only consolidate as from the XVI

century because during the Middle Ages thinkers and writers mainly focused their works on

the existing concepts of Ancient Greece and Rome, and on the Bishop of Hippo’s work and,

thus, added few new ideas on the topic.

In medieval literature, together with the verbs that connote growth or advance (crescere,

progredi), the nouns profectio and profectus can be found as generally referring to individual

development, to the progress that someone or something achieves from imperfection to

perfection. Nevertheless, although these words were more used than progressio, they were still

infrequent (H

ERRERA, 2014, pp. 230/242).

However, it was precisely during that period of time that three clergymen wrote works

that would have an important influence on subsequent thinking on this matter.

By mid of the XII century J

OAQUIN DE FIORE –a monk from Calabria– declared that

history of mankind was a process of spiritual development that should be considered as an

ascension along three phases or stages: that of the Father, that of the Son and that of the Holy

Spirit, through which human beings would gradually free from their animal physical desires

and would get to know contemplative serenity and spiritual happiness. In

DE FIORE’s idea each

stage repeated in a way events that had occurred in the previous one and overcame them and,

therefore, the future became predictable, which implied that the end of the world could be

foretold (R

EEVES, 1977).

The English Franciscan friar R

OGER BACON came slightly later. His main aim was to

attain a full reform in higher education and to introduce a broad and scientific programme of

secular studies within the universities. At the request of Pope Clement IV he wrote Opus Maius,

an actual treaty on sciences (grammar, logics, maths, physics and philosophy) (B

IDGES, 2010).

His linkage with the idea of progress was due to his belief that the world could be known

through the empiric method, a technique that would allow men to advance both in arts and

sciences (B

URY, 1920, pp. 24/29).

Likewise, T

HOMAS AQUINAS must be mentioned in this group: he was conscious that

historicity was an essential dimension of men and thus he recognised that mankind could not

reach its fulfilment unless it underwent a progressive movement through time. In his work it is

clear that the knowledge of the truth was the result of a gradual and progressive process that

depended on the history of ideas (H

ERRERA, 2014, pp. 230/242).

St. Augustine says: “The education of the human race, represented by the people of God, has advanced, like that

of an individual, through certain epochs, or, as it were, ages, so that it might gradually rise from earthly to

heavenly things, and from the visible to the invisible” (X:14).

And he adds: “suffice is to say that the seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not by an

evening, but by the Lord's day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the resurrection of Christ, and

prefiguring the eternal repose not only of the spirit, but also of the body. There we shall rest and see, see and love,

love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than

to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?” (XXII:30).

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IV. Reconsidering the advances of knowledge and of the idea of progress.

It was J

OHN OF SALISBURY who attributed BERNARD DE CHARTRES the famous statement

Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes (“We are dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants”), assertion

recorded by the XII century that expressed the general conviction of that time: thinkers of the

Middle Ages could only see beyond what their classical predecessors had seen just because they

were raised over their gigantic intellectual stature (T

AYLOR, 1919, vol 2, p. 159; MC GARRY,

2009).

Within that context, writers from the Renaissance were also unable to get rid of the

classical model and, although human interest gradually turned towards an anthropocentrism,

that pre-existing conviction led them back to Greco-Roman sources.

The change only overcame as of the ends of the XVI century when in Europe, more

specifically in France and in England, authors openly began to discuss about the possibilities of

the advance of human knowledge. From then on what had been unthinkable began to be

thought of as reasonable: intellectual landscape changed and the ideology of progress became a

dominant position (R

IST, 2008, pp. 35/37).

Without any claim to covering this issue exhaustively, I will review some authors’ opinions

on the topic.

a) J

EAN BODIN.

In France, J

EAN BODIN’s work led the way: he argued that a certain regularity in a gradual

ascent of knowledge and society could be observed throughout history

. He took up several

ideas from his preceding medieval clergymen and suggested a division of history in three

periods, each of which bore the stamp of three different racial groups (South-eastern,

Mediterranean and Northern people); he avoided fatalism and asserted that history depended

mostly on human will; he rejected the theory of degeneration and claimed that his era was fully

equal and even somehow better than classical Antiquity, especially when it came to arts and

sciences; and he proposed the idea of considering the world from a caring perspective, as he

suggested that all races and peoples, with their peculiar aptitudes and qualities, contributed to

the benefit of mankind as a whole.

b) F

RANCIS BACON.

As B

URY says, in England it was BACON (who is considered one of the fathers of

empiricism) the one who outlined a final agenda for a great renewal of knowledge (B

URY,

1920, pp. 50/63). He was more aware than most of his fellow contemporaries of the need to

break with the past and to establish a new departing point, based on the conviction that

experimentation was the key to discovering the secrets of nature. Even though several of his

claims had been anticipated by the end of XVI century, B

ACON insisted more explicitly on

them and formulated them in a precise way; he clarified and explained many of the progressive

JEAN BODIN was born in France in 1530 and died in 1596. Among his works we must mention Methodus ad

facilem historiarum cognitionem (translated into English by R

EYNOLDS, Method for the easy comprehension of history) and Les

six livres de la République.

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ideas that had inspired the scientific thinking of the last period of the previous century and by

1623 wrote The New Atlantis, a utopian text in which he described his view about the future of

human discoveries and knowledge (S

PEDDING, ELLIS & HEATH, 1859).

c) D

ESCARTES.

He was firmly determined to break with scholastic arguments and used the mathematical

method in an attempt to end with the syllogism used during the Middle Ages. The mechanical

theory of the world, typical of Cartesianism, led him to an unavoidable conclusion: doctrine of

Providence should be excluded. From B

URY’S point of view it was this exclusion that allowed

the replacement of Providence as an active and determining force of history, by Progress, that

would begin to play that role onwards (B

URY, 1920, p. 65).

As from his Discourse on Method, D

ESCARTES put forward two main axioms that led to the

strengthening and further development of the theory of progress: on one hand, the supremacy

of reason and, on the other, the invariability of the laws of Nature. On top of both of them he

added the strict use of the analytic method that, according to him, was applicable to physical

knowledge as well as to the study of history.

He insisted on the need to break with the past and to build a new system that would not

use hints of the classical authors; he hoped that knowledge could progress on the grounds of

his own method and discoveries. The first title for his Discourse on Method; of rightly conducting

one’s reason and on seeking truth in sciences had been The Plan of a Universal Science to raise our nature to

its higher degree of perfection (F

OWLER, 1998, p. 61).

As B

URY claims, within that context the justification of an independent attitude towards

Antiquity was turning to be quite common (B

URY, 1920, p. 67).

d) Academies and Societies.

One of the consequences of the dissemination of the ideas of thinkers as B

ODIN, BACON

and DESCARTES was the importance that the study of arts and sciences reached from this new

perspective and the subsequent introduction of scientific communities that began to appear

with the aim that their members would be able to interact and cooperate in order to enable the

growth and spreading of knowledge.

In 1635 L’Académie Française was founded to maintain standards of literary taste and to

establish the literary language; in 1660, the Royal Society in London –its definitive official

name as from 1663 has been Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge–. It adopted the

motto Nullius in verba, taken to mean “take nobody’s word for it”, which shows the conviction

of the need of empirical evidence against the previous argument of authority.

After that, L’Académie Royale des Sciences was established in 1666, during King Louis XIV

reign, to provide assistance to the French government in defining policies with regard to

scientific and technical research

Among its founding members were DESCARTES and PASCAL. It was the first scientific institution to adopt the

metric system.

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The horizon of human knowledge kept on broadening. The idea of progress of sciences

and arts was, by then, something evident.

e) Ancients and Moderns.

Within that context and mainly in France, a peculiar discussion took place between the

ancients and the moderns. It was an intellectual dispute that went on between 1687 and 1694, and

between 1713 and 1715, which ended with the victory of the latter, the moderns, who thought it

was certainly possible for human knowledge to progress, as well as, consequently, sciences and

arts

The main question that triggered such a debate was whether it was possible to consider

thinkers of that time intellectually similar to their classical predecessors or if, on the contrary,

they were to be taken as inferior authors.

Moderns held that knowledge –mainly referring to literature– improved along time and

experience, and that perfection should not be necessarily associated to classical antiquity

.DE

FONTENELLE(1657-1757) must be mentioned among them. He was a fervent advocate of the

idea of progress in arts and sciences and he argued that each era had the advantage of not

having to rediscover what had already been achieved in previous stages. According to him,

future generations were always superior to previous ones, as progress was a natural and a

necessary effect of the constitution of human mind

ERRAULT, who was his contemporary, held the same point. He claimed that new thinkers

had the possibility to add to what they had received from their predecessors, their own

advances. Nevertheless, unlike D

E FONTELLE, he thought that human nature is immutable;

that it produced as important thinkers in one period as it did in the other, and that great men

belonging to an era were as relevant as great men belonging to another one; but he added that

their works were unequal and that, given the same favourable conditions, the ones produced

later would be the best, because both arts and sciences depended on the accumulation of

human knowledge which necessarily increased along time

f) Pre-revolutionary ideas.

Once this querelle was over, authors like T

URGOT continued developing the idea of

progress with the aim to expand it to other areas beyond hard sciences and art. In his famous

speech at La Sorbonne, titled Tableau philosophique des progrès succesifs de l’esprit humain (1750), the

This Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns took place precisely during Louis XIV’s reign, period during

which France went through advances in different areas, something that helped the monarch be known as the Sun

King.

This quarrel that took place in France had its impact in other countries as well, where the same or similar debate

was reproduced. Such the case of England, Germany and Italy.

The Quarrel between the Ancient and the Moderns has been studied in different opportunities. See, esp. RIGAULT’s

Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes (1856). For its impact in England, see J

ONES’ Ancients and moderns. A

study of the rise of the scientific movement in the seventeenth century (1961).

DE FONTENELLE, Poésies pastorales avec un traité sur la nature de l’eglogue et une digression sur les anciens et les modernes.

PERRAULT, Paralelle des anciens et des modernes, en ce qui regarde les arts et les sciences.

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meaning of progress broadly included different aspects of culture: habits, uses and customs,

institutions, rules and regulations, economy, etc.

Thus, with the expansion of rationalism, a new concept naturally arose: intellectual

progress could and should expand to a general progress of mankind. And that idea gradually

gained prominence, so by the middle of the XVIII century it began to be closely linked to the

theories related to the political and economic handling of the State.

By 1758, H

ELVETIUS claimed in De l’esprit that mankind could reach perfection through

laws and institutions

On the other hand, D

E SAINT-PIERRE spoke about general progress of man and wrote about

the perfection of society through peace among nations. He represented the transition between

the first stages of Cartesianism, busy with purely intellectual dilemmas, and the last thinkers of

the XVIII century, who began to focus on social problems. He strongly believed in social

unending progress

Meanwhile the Encyclopedist movement spread the idea of general progress and the concept

fell into the hands of some economists who closely linked it to the achievement of happiness.

A group of French economists known as physiocrats (Q

UESNAY

, MIRABEAU

, MERCER DE

RIVIÈRE

, among others) held, in that sense, that an economic theory was somehow

equivalent to a theory on human society. They assumed that the aim of society should be the

achievement of happiness for its members; thus, that should be the sole aim of government.

According to them, the highest possible level of happiness on Earth was to obtain a large

amount of goods and a corresponding level of freedom, to be able to enjoy them. Personal

property appeared, then, as a necessary condition for a full enjoyment of the fruits of man’s

work.

These thinkers were no idealists; they believed in a future progress of society towards a

state of happiness through the increase of opulence, which, in turn, depended on better

standards of justice and liberty. And they insisted on the importance of the enlargement and

spreading of human knowledge, both of them, crucial conditions for economic growth (B

URY,

1920, pp. 172/176).

But France was not the only country to advance in this item. Economists, jurists and other

scholars from European societies began to analyse the phenomenon of progress and to study it

from their own areas.

In the United Kingdom, the effects of the Industrial Revolution triggered different social

and economic theories that redefined in that country a number of ideas, among them, that of

progress.

Amid that revolution, A

DAM SMITH, from Scotland, published The wealth of nations in 1776,

a work that, according to many, proved to be the first systematic text on economy, but whose

background theme was the natural progress of mankind. N

ISBET notes that what turned out to

HELVETIUS, De l’esprit, https://archive.org/details/delesprit03helvgoog

DE SAINT-PIERRE, Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe,

https://archive.org/details/projetpourrendr00saingoog

FRANÇOIS QUESNAY was born in France in 1664 and died in 1774.

HONORÉ GABRIEL RIQUETTI, Earl of Mirabeau, was born in France in 1749 and died in 1791.

Pierre-Paul Lemercier de la Rivière was born in France in 1719 and died in 1801.

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be fundamental in this book was SMITH’s statement that there was a natural order in the

progress of nations and that the reason why British and European economies as a whole were

threatened to stagnate, was that regulations and costumes had interfered in the processes of

the natural progress of wealth, work, abilities, rent and benefits. He adds that S

MITH’s invisible

hand aimed both at the mechanic of progress through time as well as at the stability of the

economic system (N

ISBET, 1979, p. 20).

In Germany, K

ANT published a book in 1784

in which he claimed that history of

mankind could be considered as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to carry out a

political constitution both internally and externally perfect, as the sole stage in which every

aptitude implanted in humanity could be fully developed (N

ISBET, 1979, p. 20).

Besides these thinkers, many other authors spread the idea of progress not only linked to

hard sciences and art, but to other areas as well. Among them, the works of W

ILLIAM

GODWIN, ROBERT OWEN and ADAM FERGUSON in England must be mentioned here.

In France, D

E CONDORCET developed his theory of the ten stages of history and he tried

to show the subsequent changes of society, the influence each stage had on the following ones

and the advance of human race towards truth or happiness. He insisted on the inextricable

connection between intellectual progress and freedom, virtue and the respect for human rights,

as well as the effect of science on the destruction of prejudices. According to him, the study of

history should allow to determine its direction in the future and, thus, be able to accelerate the

rate of progress

In Spain, the dissemination of the ideas linked to the notion of progress arrived together

with the Spanish Illustration, especially during the reigns of Fernando VI and Carlos III,

although some of its representatives came to be known even before, such as U

ZTÁRIZ

. It was

during those reigns that F

EIJOO

, MAYANS

, RODRÍGUEZ DE CAMPOMANES

, CABARRÚS

and J

OVELLANOS

, among others, promoted in their writings the ideas related to the advance

of mankind in its different expressions.

That was how in different regions of Europe, by the ends of the XVIII century the ideas

of liberty, property, justice and order came to be closely associated to the concept of progress.

KANT, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose.

DE CONDORCET, Sketch for a historical picture of the progress of the human mind.

UZTÁRIZ, Theórica y práctica de comercio y de marina en diferentes discursos,

http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=B18968363&idioma=0

FEIJÓO, Teatro crítico universal

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/teatro-critico-universal--0/html/

Among MAYANS’ writings, see: Epistolarum libri sex

https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=HYJYAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

and Orador Cristiano:

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/el-orador-christiano-ideado-en-tres-dialogos--0/

RODRÍGUEZ DE CAMPOMANES was Carlos III’s Minister of Finance, member of the Royal Accademy of

History. Among his works, see Tratado de la regalia de amortización:

https://archive.org/details/tratadodelaregal00campuoft

CABARRÚS was outstanding mainly in the world of finances and engineering. He conceived the first national

bank in Spain, the Banco de San Carlos, and encouraged the construction of the channel Isabel II.

JOVELLANOS’ economic ideas are mainly introduced in his Informe sobre la ley agraria

http://www.espacioebook.com/ilustracion/jovellanos/Jovellanos_InformesobrelaLeyAgraria.pdf

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So in the prelude of the French Revolution of 1789, that idea had achieved a dimension that

would have been unconceivable by the beginnings of the XVII century, when that theory

began to be elaborated

V. Progress after the French Revolution. Progress and development

The study of the causes and effects of the French Revolution go far beyond the aim of this

work, but I cannot leave out one point: even if the revolution achieved its main target, which

was to overthrow absolutism, truth is that the failure in accomplishing the other goals brought

along certain discredit of the theory of progress.

That is why at the beginning of the XIX century some thinkers dedicated their efforts to

relaunch the concept, sometimes guided by the Christian doctrine; such the case of D

CHATEAUBRIAND

However, those who pushed more strongly for the idea of progress to regain its impulse

were the authors dedicated to the study of the organization of society.

Until the French Revolution the idea of progress had been an optimistic one: It had

encouraged revolutionaries and reformists; but it had lacked of specific rules, something that

had turned out to be rather complicated, because without rules, it could not mark the path to

follow. That is why the new challenge was to find in a systematic way the meaning and rules of

progress of society, such as it had been done with hard sciences and art.

As C

OWEN and SHENTON note, that attempt of systematization had as a main object: to

channel the social disorder that reigned in Europe by the beginning of the XIX century

OWEN & SHENTON, 1996, p. 57).

That social disorder was not only a result of the French Revolution, but an effect of the

consequences of the Industrial Revolution, as well. The implementation of S

MITH’s economic

theory, among other causes, determined the concentration of wealth and power in hands of a

few capitalist industrials, the exploitation of workers, rural exodus, uncontrolled growth of

cities, overcrowding, etc.; problems, all of them, which tried to solved from philosophical and

ideological fields.

Even if –as it was said at the very beginning of this work– it is not possible to establish

when exactly different authors began using the idea of development instead of the one of progress,

it can be argued that by this period of time many European thinkers who were working on this

systematization, were already using that concept in their projects.

a) D

E SAINT-SIMON.

He lived between 1760 and 1825; he followed the ideas of D

E CONDORCET and tried to

push them even further. D

E CONDORCET had claimed that history was valuable because it

Nevertheless, not every author saw progress as something necessarily positive. Among the sceptics of progress

of this period, we can mention, for example, R

OUSSEAU, MALTHUS and SCHOPENHAUER, group that would be

enlarged by the XIX century with the incorporation of B

URCKHARDT, NIETZCHE, SPENGLER, INGE,

TOCQUEVILLE, WEBER and SOREL.

DE CHATEAUBRIAND, Le genie du christianisme. Also see Essai historique, politique et moral, sur les révolutions anciennes et

modernes, considerées dans leur rapports avec la Révolution Françoise.

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provided data that made it possible to predict future events; but as his method was not entirely

scientific, that kind of previsions were almost impossible.

To be able to predict the future of a specific society it was necessary to find the law that

ruled its historical movement, and that was what D

E SAINT-SIMON tried to figure out.

In his works he argued that that law was the one that follows: historical times of

organization and construction, and those of critical periods and revolutions succeed each other

alternately. That was why, according to him, as revolutionary times were over in France, a

period of social construction and evolution should come, in which thinkers should play the

role of main organizers

E SAINT-SIMON stated that the aim of development was the happiness of society. And as

the working class was the most numerous one, the first step towards that goal should be to

improve its general conditions, something that should be taken into account by every

government as a top priority.

As B

URY says (BURY, 1920, pp. 278/285), DE SAINT-SIMON’s answer to that problem was

socialism. Development became, thus, the development of the working class.

b) C

OMTE.

OMTE too dedicated his works to establish the laws that govern development. According

to him, the essence of human progress is always of an intellectual nature. Hence, he argued

that human mentality had evolved through history in three stages: theological, metaphysical

and positive or scientific; he added that since all physical disciplines had already reached the

scientific stage, it was time to create a true science of society which he first called social physic,

and then sociology. His great objective was to demonstrate the basic rules of human behaviour

within society and to include different topics closely linked to economy and politics.

According to him, sociology should be divided into two main fields: social statics, in order to

study social relationships; and social dynamics, that should focus, mainly, on the principles that

rule human progress.

He was a fervent supporter of the need to develop and he claimed that no true order could

be neither established nor maintained if it was not fully compatible with progress, and that no

true progress could be reached if it did not tend to the consolidation of order. Progress, from

his point of view, was the development of order (C

OWEN & SHENTON, 1996, p. 7).

In his Système de Politique Positive (or Traité de Sociologie) he described in detail the utopia that

would exist on Earth once men could find the way to set free from all beliefs, uses and

regulations.

c) Development during the second half of XIX century.

Once the concept of development was introduced in the literature of the time, different

authors dedicated their works to try to define what exactly should be understood by development.

This gave way to a series of theories in natural as well as in social sciences.

Among other works, see: DE SAINT-SIMON Mémoire sur la science de l´homme; Cathéchisme politique des industriels and

Vues sur la propriété et la legislation:

https://archive.org/details/oeuvresdesaints00rodgoog

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It was the time of thinkers like PROUDHON, NEWMAN, MILL, MARX, SPENCER and

ARWIN, among many others.

Some of them used the ideas of progress, development and even evolution as

interchangeable concepts. Others, on the contrary, tried to distinguish among them

While this happened in the world of thought, material and technological changes were also

becoming evident. The ideas of progress and development could be clearly seen and touched

in both the London Exposition of 1851

, and the Chicago Exposition of 1893, events that

aroused the interest of millions of people

The economic science world also made significant contributions that showed vital for the

formulation of the idea of development. At the beginning of XX century S

CHUMPETER

popularized the concept of creative destruction as a means of describing the transformation

process that comes with innovations. In 1912 he conceived a cyclic and irregular conception of

economic growth (S

CHUMPETER, 2004).

VI. Parentheses and reconsideration of development. The World Wars

By the end of XVII century P

ERRAULT had already pointed out that long-term wars often

lead people to neglect their studies and to focus on more imperious needs, such as self-

preservation; so after a period of several advances, other of decay and ignorance could

overcome.

More than two centuries later history would confirm his theory. The two World Wars of

the XX century implied a complete change in the political, economic and social sketch and,

thus, in the scientific one as well.

Decolonization processes must be added to this list: they caused a deep reconsideration of

the idea of development. As from the last third of the XIX century different European

countries had begun a new colonialist expansion over territories located in other continents,

PROUDHON (France 1809-1865) was one of the fathers of anarchism; he described the idea of development as a

road to freedom.

Cardinal N

EWMAN’s An essay on the development of Christian doctrine tried to distinguish the idea of development from

that of progress and, thus, to detach his work from the positive line of thought. N

EWMAN was born in England in

1801 and died in 1890.

ILL (England, 1806 – France, 1873) depicted his ideas referred to progress in his Principles of political economy.

PENCER (England, 1820-1903) wrote Social statics, or the conditions essential to human happiness in 1850. In that work

he claimed that the ideas on evolution should be applied to society.

ARX (Germany, 1818-England, 1883) proclaimed a determinist philosophy of history which should give way to

the extinction of capitalism and to the birth of socialism. His was a philosophy of history that should lead to

inevitable results (among his works, see Capital and, together with E

NGELS, The Communist Manifesto).

In 1859 D

ARWIN (England 1809-1882) revolutionized the world of science as a whole with his theory on natural

evolution (See On the origin of species by means of natural selection; or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life).

PENCER, MILL, PROUDHON and MARX used the ideas of progress and development as synonyms. DARWIN shared

this point of view and used indistinctly progress, development and evolution.

According to the “Edinburgh Review”, the goal of this exposition was to grasp the essence of human progress

ISBET, 1979, p. 28)

Although the Chicago Exposition was held amid one of the worst economic crisis in the USA, it was visited by

more than 27.000.000 people (N

ISBET, 1979, p. 28).

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mostly due to the economic and demographic crisis that Europe went through by the ‘70s of

that century, and that led European powers to look for raw materials, cheap labour and new

markets beyond the seas.

England, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany were the main characters

of this period that would have one of its last chapters by the end of World War I, and the last

one, by the end of World War II.

The fall of colonialism in its two stages brought along several consequences, some of them

more dramatic that the ones existing before and during the European domination, but it

contributed to the reconsideration of the idea of development as well.

Some authors like R

IST argue that even though the noun had been previously used, it is

only after World War II that we can seriously talk about a theory of development or about the era of

development (R

IST, 2008, pp. 47/79).

a) World War I and the League of Nations

At the end of World War I, in 1919 the League of Nations was created with the mission of

reorganizing international relationships and maintaining peace. It was the first permanent

worldwide political institution created to achieve what diplomacy among countries had failed

to attain until then.

As R

IST says, as far as the theory of development is concerned, the text of the Covenant that

gave birth to that League was relevant in view of its articles 22 and 23.

It should be noted that the colonies (above all, the ones from Africa) played a key role in

the negotiation of the drafting of the text, mainly because one of the central deliberations after

the War focussed on what should be done with the German colonies and with the Ottoman

territories

. On the one hand some European powers, such as Britain and France, intended to

expand their dominance over the previous German territories; on the other, the United States

of America –whose armed support had been an absolute precondition for the Allied victory–

had already made clear both its anti-colonial opinion, as well as its support to all kinds of free

trade

The German colonies were Togoland, Kamerun, Southwest Africa, Tanganyika, Rwanda, German East Africa,

Kionga Triangle and German New Guinea, which summed about 2.000.000 km

. The Ottoman territories

included, besides the current Republic of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, among others.

A clear illustration of USA’s position were the Fourteen Points of President Woodrow Wilson, who held in

Congress (on January 8

, 1918) the only possible basis of an enduring peace:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings

of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as

the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade

conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent

with domestic safety.

V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance

of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned

must have equal weight with the equitable government whose title is to be determined.

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The agreed solution tried to reach an answer somewhere in between those claims. Articles

22 and 23 of the Covenant made it clear that the colonies and territories that had been

dominated by the losing side were “…inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves

under the strenuous conditions of the modern world…”. Because of that it “…should be

applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust

of civilisation…”. Thus, it was stated that the “…best method of giving practical effect to this

principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who by

reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical position can best undertake

this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised

by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League.”

At the same time it was added that the “…character of the mandate must differ according

to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its

economic conditions and other similar circumstances (…) Certain communities formerly

belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as

independent nations can be provisionally recognized…”

VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the

best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and

unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national

policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing;

and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment

accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their

comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish

sympathy.

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the

sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will

serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the

government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of

international law is forever impaired.

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by

Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years,

should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all.

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

X. The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured,

should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.

XI. Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free

and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly

counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the

political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.

XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other

nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely

unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a

free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.

XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably

Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic

independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording

mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

The complete texts of both articles read:

ARTICLE 22.

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These texts turned out to be particularly relevant because they explicitly introduced for the

first time in the international thought the idea that there existed different stages of

development and, therefore, differences between developed societies and those that had not

yet reached that status.

To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty

of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by

themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the

well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation and that securities for the

performance of this trust should be embodied in this Covenant.

The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted

to advanced nations who by reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical position can best

undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them

as Mandatories on behalf of the League.

The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the development of the people, the

geographical situation of the territory, its economic conditions and other similar circumstances.

Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their

existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice

and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities

must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory.

Other peoples, especially those of Central Africa, are at such a stage that the Mandatory must be responsible for

the administration of the territory under conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience and religion,

subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trade, the

arms traffic and the liquor traffic, and the prevention of the establishment of fortifications or military and naval

bases and of military training of the natives for other than police purposes and the defence of territory, and will

also secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other Members of the League.

There are territories, such as South-West Africa and certain of the South Pacific Islands, which, owing to the

sparseness of their population, or their small size, or their remoteness from the centres of civilisation, or their

geographical contiguity to the territory of the Mandatory, and other circumstances, can be best administered

under the laws of the Mandatory as integral portions of its territory, subject to the safeguards above mentioned in

the interests of the indigenous population.

In every case of mandate, the Mandatory shall render to the Council an annual report in reference to the territory

committed to its charge.

The degree of authority, control, or administration to be exercised by the Mandatory shall, if not previously

agreed upon by the Members of the League, be explicitly defined in each case by the Council.

A permanent Commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the annual reports of the Mandatories and

to advise the Council on all matters relating to the observance of the mandates.

ARTICLE 23.

Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of international conventions existing or hereafter to be agreed

upon, the Members of the League:

(a) will endeavour to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labour for men, women, and children,

both in their own countries and in all countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend, and for

that purpose will establish and maintain the necessary international organisations;

(b) undertake to secure just treatment of the native inhabitants of territories under their control;

in women and children, and the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs;

(d) will entrust the League with the general supervision of the trade in arms and ammunition with the countries in

which the control of this traffic is necessary in the common interest;

(e) will make provision to secure and maintain freedom of communications and of transit and equitable treatment

for the commerce of all Members of the League. In this connection, the special necessities of the regions

devastated during the war of 1914-1918 shall be borne in mind;

(f) will endeavour to take steps in matters of international concern for the prevention and control of disease.

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This contrast between development and non-development or underdevelopment would

yet undergo several steps, as it will be seen later on.

Even though the League of Nations finally failed in achieving its main goal, the scheme

followed regarding the colonies did allow some of their political leaders to begin gaining

relevance within the international arena and to raise several items related to the need of

development of their territories.

Development had begun acquiring tones tightly linked to liberty

b) World War II and the United Nations

IST states that World War II turned everything upside down.

To be able to set free from Nazism, Europe had to place itself into the hands of USA and

the USSR, powers both that had no interest whatsoever in protecting colonial empires. The

centre of international politics shifted from Europe to these States.

Although the creation of the United Nations responded to similar reasons to those which

had given birth to the League of Nations, the role played by USA would be crucial to stamp

new and specific characteristics.

To begin with, the Head Office of the new international organization was no longer in

Europe (the League had been settled in Geneva), but in New York.

Among its aims, there were included some that had more specifically to do with

development. Article 55, a) of the UN Charter stated: “With a view to the creation of

conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations

among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of

peoples, the United Nations shall promote: a. higher standards of living, full employment, and

conditions of economic and social progress and development” (underlining belongs to the

author).

On the other hand, as form 1945, the idea of development was closely linked to the fall of

colonialism and the need of sovereignty, because the meaning of national sovereignty could no

longer have an actual meaning unless it was bonded to that of development understood as a

progress towards social and economic equality which could not be denied to any nation on

natural grounds. National sovereignty and development, so defined, came to be as closely

related to each other as the principle of equality of rights was to individual freedom (K

AY,

1975, pp. 1/2)

In 1937, while addressing the Royal Empire Society in London, the Governor of Nigeria, BOURDILLON, said:

“The theory of exploitation is dead (…) and the theory of development has taken its place” (C

OWEN &

SHENTON, 1996, p. 6).

PALAZZO notes that during the second post-war period a profound decolonization process took place in Asia,

Africa and other regions. He recalls that in 1941 the allies signed the Atlantic Charter in which they recognized

the right of self-determination of all people as well as their right to choose their form of government, both rights

to be included later on in the UN Charter, and which would bring as a consequence the approval, in 1960, of the

Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (P

ALAZZO, 2008).

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Consequently different colonies gained independence; among them, Burma and

Philippines in 1946, and India, Pakistan and Ceylon in 1947

VII. Development and underdevelopment

Once these independences took place the idea of development was no longer so tightly

bonded to that of sovereignty; it began to achieve a new content, instead, now related to

economic development.

a) The Marshall Plan

Officially called the European Recovery Plan, it was passed in 1948.

As T

AMAMES recalls, during 1946 and 1947the agro-industrial European production had

fallen below levels previous to the war and it was insufficient to cover the needs of an

increasing population.

Given the economic context and facing a complex political situation in Greece and

Turkey, from where Britain had withdrawn its troops, due to their financial problems,

Truman’s government, through his Secretary of State, George Marshall, announced at Harvard,

on June 5

, 1947, a programme that was designed to rehabilitate the economies of 17

European countries. The Secretary of State made it clear that this rehabilitation programme

was extremely necessary and that it should be outlined by the European countries themselves.

USA would, in turn, support it firmly (T

AMAMES, 1982, pp. 25 and ff.).

The Marshall Plan helped in changing the economic and political face of Western Europe

and it reinforced USA’s position as number one world powersomething that, in addition,

resulted in a curb on communist influence.

The idea of development was now tied to economic recovery and growth, with North

America’s backing.

b) Truman’s Four Points Speech

On January 20

, 1949 President Truman delivered a speech that would determine the

definite birth of the theory of development as a tandem to the idea of underdevelopment.

That speech had four points: in the first three the President assured that USA would back

the UN, that it would continue helping Europe’s reconstruction through the Marshall Plan,

and that it would create an organization (it would be the NATO) to counteract the soviet

threat.

Point number Four came to be innovative: he held that his country should embark on a

“…bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial

progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas…”.

Other of the main milestones of the end of colonialism was the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, north-west

Vietnam. On November 20

, 1953, French paratroopers occupied Dien Bien Phu with the mission to build an

air-ground base to harass the Viet-minh. But on May 7

, 1954, the base was attacked and stormed by General

Giap’s forces. That fall meant the end of French presence in Indochina (B

ALBÍN, 1982).

By that time, too, the Cold War between USA and the USSR began, when on March 2

, 1954 the Soviets did not

leave the north of Iran as it had been agreed, but remained there until November, when they finally left due to

severe warnings from both USA and Great Britain.

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RIST claims that the appearance of the term underdevelopment meant the introduction of the

idea that something could be done to help a non-developed person or a society, develop; and

to adopt the solution internationally. Underdevelopment did not appear as something opposite

to development, but as something incomplete, so development acquired a transitive meaning:

not only could things develop per se, but instead something could and should be done to make

it happen.

An acceleration of growth was, therefore, the only logical way of bridging the gap between

a developed country and an underdeveloped one. Relations between these two types of

countries had become, thus, quantitative.

The tandem development-underdevelopment would keep a distance between different

parts of the world, justified by the need of an intervention on the basis that held that a country

could not remain unaltered when it faced extreme necessity. This implied a collective

international effort based on the growth of production and a better use of natural and human

resources.

The key to development was national productive growth so there was no longer need to

answer some former questions such as how a society should organize itself, nor who must be

the bearer of the means of production, nor what role should the State play.

Thereby, Point Four simply imposed a new standard to weigh development: Gross

Domestic Product. This granted USA the first place in the list (R

IST, 2008, pp. 70/77).

Within that context UN created a series of special agencies to promote development. On

November 16

, 1949, its General Assembly approved the creation of the Expanded

Programme of Technical Assistance, made up of voluntary contributions of the member

States, whose main aim was to finance the visit of technical experts and the schooling of the

inhabitants of the less developed countries

Meanwhile, a new expression closely linked to underdeveloped countries began to be used: the

Third World

c) Nonaligned countries. The Bandung Conference

It has already been said that as from decolonization leaders from the ex-colonies began to

play an important role in the organization of international relationships.

Proof of this is the so-called Bandung Conference, held in that city between April 18

and

, 1955, which gave birth to the movement known as the nonaligned countries, or countries

belonging to the Third World. The Conference was convened by the referents from India –

There were other regional institutions with similar goals: on February 25

, 1948, UN’s Economic and Social

Council created five regional economic commissions whose aim was to help governments investigate an analyse

national and regional economic issues. The working areas were Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East and

Latin America.

In fact, it is said that a French economist, Sauvy, was the one who coined the term, when drawing a parallel with

the idea of the “third estate”, in order to name those countries that did not belong to any of the blocs of countries

involved in the Cold War. He wrote: “Nous parlons volontiers des deux mondes en presence, de leur guerre

possible, de leur coexistence, etc., oubliant trop souvent qu’il en existe un troisième, le plus important, et en

somme le premier dans la cronologie. C’est ensemble de ceux que l’on appelle, en styleNations Unies, les pays

sous-développés” (S

AUVY, 1952).

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Nehru– and Indonesia –Sukarno–. It was attended by representatives of twenty nine countries

from Asia and Africa. Its main goal was to favour economic and cultural cooperation.

Nevertheless other points were agreed, such as the need to respect human rights, self-

determination of the peoples, the principle of non-discrimination, and the promotion of peace,

among other items.

Bandung marked the beginning of collective demands made by these countries in the

fields of politics and development. In its final communiqué it can be read that the African-

Asian Conference recognized the urgent need to promote the economic development of the

region (point I) and, thus, recommended the establishment of a special fund in UN to promote

this growth (point 3).

Reading the whole document it becomes quite clear that the idea of development

continued to be referred to economic accumulation and growth, based on private investment

and international assistance (R

IST, 2008, pp. 81/85; HARO TEGGLEN, 1982, p. 133 and ff.).

This being so, within UN different institutions were created: SUNFED (Special United

Nations Fund for Economic Development), in 1958; the World Bank began playing a main

role and created the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to promote private investment,

and founded the International Development Association to grant loans at very low rates for

the poorest countries. Besides, regional banks for development were created.

VIII. Economic development and human development

Thus, the ‘70s were fundamental for the consolidation of the idea of economic

development and many of the steps taken by the international society confirmed it.

However, that meaning of progress in an economic sense began to undergo a new stage: it

broadened its contents and embraced other notions.

a) UN’s “First Development Decade”

In 1961 the president of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy addressed UN’s

General Assembly. In his speech he launched a proposal for the establishment of a

“development decade” in order to narrow the gap between developed and underdeveloped

countries, to accelerate modernization processes, and to free humanity from poverty.

A year later, by resolution 1710, UN’s General Assembly established the ‘60s as the

“Development Decade. A programme for international economic cooperation” and issued the

document “Development decade. Proposals for action”. In its introduction Secretary-General

U-Thant stated: “At the opening of the United Nations development decade, we are beginning

to understand the real aims of development and the nature of the development process. We

are learning that development concerns not only man's material needs, but also the

improvement of the social conditions of his life and his broad human aspirations.

Development is not just economic growth, it is growth plus change”

http://research.un.org/en/docs/dev/1960-1970

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However, UN’s specific goal ended up being a purely economic one: to try to reach a

minimum annual rate of growth of aggregate national income of 5% at the end of the decade,

for each underdeveloped country

In the same order UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)

was created in 1964, with the aim to help developing countries to benefit from several

commercial, investing and growing opportunities. A year later SUNFED merged with World

Bank’s Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and on November 22

, 1965, the

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was created, under the moto Serving

Progress.

Nevertheless, by the end of that decade and even with these institutional advances within

the international community, most countries belonging to the Third World had not

experimented significant signs of development

b) UN’s “Second Development Decade”. Basic needs theory

The ‘70s were a historical moment in which several thinkers especially, once again,

economists, introduced a critical view about economic growth taken as the main or exclusive

goal of development.

On October 24

, 1970 UN’s General Assembly established the “Second Development

Decade”

. During that period major conferences on racism, women, law of the sea, water and

the environment, among others, expanded the conversation within the UN on development.

Thus, development began being understood in a more comprehensive and global way.

This change, for example, led the president of the World Bank, R

OBERT MC NAMARA to

include in his annual speech some concepts that would gain force some time later within the

theory of development. On September 25

, 1972 he warned the Board of Governors that the

increase of the gross income of the developing countries did not necessarily mean that their

populations were anyhow better than a decade before. He remarked “We are talking about

hundreds of millions of desperately poor people throughout the whole of the developing

world. We are talking about 40% of entire populations. Development is simply not reaching

them in any decisive degree. Their countries are growing in gross economic terms. But their

individual lives are stagnating in human terms”, and he added “If the rich nations do not act –

through both aid and trade– to diminish the widening imbalance between their own collective

wealth and the aggregate poverty of the poor nations, development simply cannot succeed

within any acceptable time frame. The community of nations will only become more

dangerously fragmented into the privileged and the deprived, the self-satisfied and the

frustrated, the complacent and the bitter. It will not be an international atmosphere conductive

“The United Nations development decade. Proposals for action”:

https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/1710%20(XVI)

Also, J

OLLY et al. (ed.), 2004, pp. 85/87.

This situation led, for example, to the Arusha Declaration, adopted by the Tanganyika African National Union

(TANU) on February 6

, 1967. The president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, decided that it was time to tackle the

development issue, and he suggested countries should draw on their own forces. Suddenly, the idea of self-

confidence entered into the development vocabulary, at least, in that part of the world (R

IST, 2008, p. 123).

A/RES/2626 (XXV)

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to tranquillity. The developed nations, then, must do more to promote at least minimal equity

in the distribution of wealth among nations”.

Thus, he urged international institutions to establish growing goals in terms of human

basic needs, tackling problems of malnutrition, housing, health, education and employment

C NAMARA, 1981, p. 228 and ff.).

The international economic situation also helped in this change of approach in the theory

of development. The so-called October War in the Middle East, in 1973 led to an embargo

imposed by Arab oil producers to punish the West in response to support for Israel in the

Yom Kippur war against Egypt. This caused the price of crude to rise from $3 per barrel to

$12 by 1974.The price of petrol rocketed, making everything more expensive.

This crisis led to the approval by UN of the Declaration for the Establishment of a New

International Economic Order

in 1974.

During the same year a new topic increased the vocabulary on development: caring for the

environment as a key tool for growth. The Cocoyoc Declaration, adopted in Mexico, identified

the social and economic factors that were leading to environmental degradation and promoted

the merging of UNCTAD with a programme especially dedicated to environmental caring, the

UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

By then both the contents and the aim of the idea of development had become more

complex. It was no longer a question of just reaching economic growth; the idea began to gain

anthropocentric aspects as it was trying to satisfy basic needs first, including environmental

caring.

In 1975 the so-called Hammarskjöld Report –intentionally titled “What now?”– prepared

within UNEP with the occasion of the 7

Special Session of UN General Assembly, pointed

out that development was not a simple economic process, but a complex unity that had to

emerge within each society, each culture and could not be reduced to an imitation of the so-

called developed countries. The report concluded that even though there was not a universal

formula for development, whatever its contents, it should tend to satisfy the basic needs of the

poorest sectors of the population. And it added that development should take into

consideration ecologic restrictions. In its own words: “Only one Earth: the same challenge

faces Third World and industrialized countries, poor and rich alike: to discover the roads to

another development. Such roads will necessarily be diverse by virtue or different initial

conditions, as well as cultural and political preferences, the range of possible futures, and the

creativity and inventiveness deployed. All, however, will be based upon the same fundamental

values: respect for man, equality, self-reliance, the right to diversity, the promotion of

ecologically prudent technologies.

One common concern: the creation of an international environment favourable to the

search for another development.

One hope: the establishment of a system of cooperation between states and nations

designed to render this task less difficult or, at least designed to eliminate exogenous

obstacles…”

A/RES/S-6/3201

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A year later, another report, this time presented to the Club of Rome by a group of about

twenty experts from developing as well as developed countries, firmly emphasized that

development, distribution and improved welfare would require a good deal of economic

growth as well as the satisfaction of basic needs. Under the title “Reshaping the International

Order”, the report detailed the main components of welfare, which were summarised as “a life

of dignity and wellbeing for all”. The requirements for this maximum welfare were summed up

under the headings: the satisfaction of basic needs of food, shelter, education, recreation, and

participatory development. According to the RIO Report, to attain maximum welfare an

equitable social order would be needed, and the first priority ought to be given to the

eradication of poverty (T

INBERGEN -coord.-, DOLMAN -ed.-, VAN ETTINGER -dir.-, 1976).

The basic needs theory was officially adopted by the International Labour Organization

(ILO) during that same year 1976. The Tripartite World Conference on Employment, Income

Distribution, Social Progress and the International Division of Labour took seriously into

consideration that by then, in spite of the immense efforts that had been made, both at the

national and at the international levels, a significant proportion of mankind continued to eke

out an existence in the most abject conditions of material deprivation. More than 700 million

people suffered acute poverty and were destitute.

The conclusions of that Conference were presented by the Director-General of the ILO

under the title: “Employment, growth and basic needs: A one world problem”. Basic needs

were defined as the minimum standard of living which a society should set for the poorest

groups of its people. According to this presentation: “The satisfaction of basic needs means

meeting the minimum requirements of a family for personal consumption: food, shelter,

clothing; it implies access to essential services, such as safe drinking-water, sanitation,

transport, health and education; it implies that each person available for and willing to work

should have an adequately remunerated job. It should further imply the satisfaction of needs of

a more qualitative nature: a healthy, humane and satisfying environment, and popular

participation in the making of decisions that affect the lives and livelihood of the people and

individual freedoms. The satisfaction of an absolute level of basic needs as so defined should

be placed within a broader framework, namely the fulfilment of basic human rights, which are

not only ends in themselves but also contribute to the attainment of other goals. The concept

of basic needs is of universal applicability (…) Basic needs are therefore in large part a relative

concept; but there are also certain minimum levels of personal consumption and access to

social services which should be universally regarded as essential to a decent life, and which

should therefore be looked upon as minimum targets for raising the living standards of the

very poor for the entire international community”.

The document stressed: “The approach which is now proposed to this Conference is that

development planning should include, as an explicit goal, the satisfaction of an absolute level

of basic needs. This proposal goes somewhat further than the intention, already expressed by

many governments, to concentrate development measures more directly on the poorest groups

of the population. The definition of a set of basic needs, together constituting a minimum

Hammarskjöld Foundation, What now: the 1975 Dag Hammarskjöld Report prepared on the occasion of the Seventh Special

Session of the United Nations General Assembly 1975, “Development Dialogue”, Special Issue, 1975.

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standard of living, would at one and the same time assist in the identification of these groups

and provide concrete targets against which to measure progress”

As can be observed, within the UN and through its different institutions the theory of

development had gradually become the theory of basic needs.

c) At the dawn of the

theory of human development

The ‘80s: Economic adjustment and development

Meanwhile, various authors born in Bandung block of countries were lecturing on these

topics and their voices began to be heard.

By the late ‘70s, A

MARTYA SEN –an economist from India who would later be a Nobel

Prize laureate– delivered a lecture at Stanford University titled “Equality of what?” in which he

questioned different theories on equality and introduced a new series of ideas based on equality

on basic capabilities.

EN considered his proposition as a natural extension of JOHN RAWLS’ ideas on justice but

he emphasised that the focus of attention should change. He stated: “It is arguable that what is

missing in all this framework is some notion of ‘basic capabilities’: a person being able to do

certain basic things (...) Primary goods suffers from fetishist handicap in being concerned with

goods, and even though the list of goods is specified in abroad and inclusive way,

encompassing rights, liberties, opportunities, income, wealth, and the social basis of self-

respect, it still is concerned with good things rather than with what these good things do to

human beings. Utility, on the other hand, is concerned with what these things do to human

beings, but uses a metric that focusses not on the person’s capabilities but on his mental

reaction. There is something still missing in the combined list of primary goods and utilities

(…) I believe what is at issue is the interpretation of needs in the form of basic capabilities.

This interpretation of needs and interests is often implicit in the demand for equality. This type

of equality I shall call ‘basic capability equality’” (S

EN, 1979).

Meanwhile, elsewhere authors continued studying development from a basic needs

approach, in senses that were becoming similar to S

EN’s ideas.

In 1980 a “Programme for Survival” was approved within the Independent Commission

on International Development Issues. The report examined the consequence for less

developed countries of the changes in international relations and the world economy in those

years including trade, financial, and monetary issues as well as the problems of world food

supply and energy. It included an analysis of development issues followed by a set of

recommendations for the reform and restructuring of the world economic system around the

principles of equality, fair balance and mutual benefit. Its uniqueness lied in its central theme

of 'mutuality of interest' capable of revitalizing the flagging North-South negotiations

A year later, the World Bank at the instance of its president, M

CNAMARA, created a

specific commission to work on that topic. Its final report known as “Basic needs approach”

defined it as an attempt to provide opportunities for full physical, mental and social

http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/1976/76B09_199.pdf

https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/6638.pdf

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development of human personality and for generating the means to attain that goal (STREETEN

– BURKI – STEWART, 1981).

Nevertheless, reality collapsed once more due to the 1982 Mexican crisis which spread to

other parts of the world, specially, to USA’s stock market. Consequently international public

policies were redesigned coming closer to economic patterns once again and leaving human

focus aside.

It was the period of new theories on structural adjustments which, as a whole, suggested

that it was first necessary to cope with the crisis through adjustments in macroeconomics, in

order to resume talks about development some time later.These changes were meant to restore

equilibrium and harmony in the international system. But to achieve that aim it was necessary

for different countries to follow IMF’s indications.

IST argues that monetary disorder meant that economies had to be adjusted (especially

those of the debtor countries) and trade balances corrected. The budgetary austerity and

market liberalization involved in adjustment policies often meant drastic cuts in public service,

in subsidies and in health and education benefits. As he puts it: “Well-being had to be adjusted

downwards to the imperatives of the market economy” (R

IST, 2008, p. 173).

Simultaneously, and given the circumstances, several authors were dedicating their efforts

to broaden development vocabulary once again, by including topics related to women’s and

children’s roles, indiscriminate growth of population, housing problems, human rights, political

freedoms, corruption, etc. This led to alternative studies within UN focused on new aspects of

poverty and its consequences.

In 1987 UN’s Commission on Environment and Development produced a report titled

“Our Common Future” where it stressed that poverty was evil in itself and that it was no

longer possible to talk about inevitable poverty

d) The ‘90s. A

MARTYA SEN, MAHBUB UL-HAQ and UNDP

1990 was a landmark in the theory of development.

Several economic and political relevant events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989

led to a reconsideration of global phenomena as well as of the ideas of welfare and

development.

In 1990 the South Commission, chaired by N

YERERE, presented a report called “The

Challenge to the South” where it was stressed, once again, that economic growth per se was no

guarantee for a human centred development. Within this report “development is a process

which enables human beings to realize their potential, build self-confidence, and lead lives of

dignity and fulfilment. It is a process which frees people from the fear of want and

exploitation. It is a movement away from political, economic or social oppression (…) And it

is a process of growth, a movement essentially springing from within the society that is

developing. Development therefore implies growing self-reliance, both individual and

collective. The base for a nation’s development must be its own resources, both human and

material, fully used to meet its own needs (…) Development is based on self-reliance and is

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf

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self-directed; without these characteristics there can be no genuine development. But a nation

is its people. Development has therefore to be an effort of, by and for the people. True

development has to be people-centred. It has to be directed at the fulfilment of human

potential and the improvement of the social and economic well-being of the people. And it has

to be designed to secure what the people themselves perceive to be their social and economic

interests…”

In 1990, as well, and in the same vein, UNDP launched its first annual report under the

title “Human Development Report”. This implied introducing a new approach for advancing

human wellbeing. Human development, or the human development approach, according to its

launching, was about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of

the economy in which human beings live. It implied an approach focused on people and their

opportunities and choices.

In its background the works of both A

MARTYA SEN and MAHBUB UL-HAQ were decisive.

EN had continued working on the theory of development. As it had happened after the

French Revolution with the need to determine the meaning and rules for progress, in the early

‘90s something of the sort arose regarding the possibilities of measuring development, not only

taking into account economic data, but items that would especially reflect human development.

One of S

EN’s most important contributions was that he claimed that human development

could and should be quantified and measured in order to monitor its evolution over time.

Within UN his ideas were followed by M

AHBUB UL-HAQ, who translated SEN’s concepts

into achievable policies by introducing the Human Development Reports, as well as the

Human Development Index. Thus, in 1990 UNDP presented its first annual report about the

human dimension of development.

Right from its beginning the report states that amidst the international political events “we

are rediscovering the essential truth that people must be at the centre of all development. The

purpose of development is to offer people more options. One of their options is access to

income –not as an end in itself but as a means to acquiring human wellbeing. But there are

other options as well, including long life, knowledge, political freedom, personal security,

community participation and guaranteed human rights. People cannot be reduced to a single

dimension as economic creatures. What makes them and the study of the development process

fascinating is the entire spectrum through which human capabilities are expanded and utilised”

(Human Development Report –HDR– 1990, p. iii).

And it added: “The central message of this Human Development Report is that while

growth in national production (GDP) is absolutely necessary to meet all essential human

objectives, what is important is to study how this growth translates –or fails to translate– into

human development in various societies” (HDR 1990, p. iii).

According to the report, “the process of development should at least create a conducive

environment for people, individually and collectively, to develop their full potential and to

have a reasonable chance of leading productive and creative lives in accord with their needs

and interests. Human development thus concerns more than the formation of human

The Report of the South Commission “The challenge to the South”, pp. 10/11.

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capabilities, such as improved health or knowledge. It also concerns the use of these

capabilities, be it for work, leisure or political and cultural activities. And if the scales of human

development fail to balance the formation and use of human capabilities, much human

potential will be frustrated. Human freedom is vital for human development. People must be

free to exercise their choices in properly functioning markets, and they must have a decisive

voice in shaping their political frameworks” (HDR 1990, p. 1).

Regarding the way in which human development was measured, it affirmed: “human

development is measured in this Report not by the yardstick of income alone but by a more

comprehensive index -called the human development index- reflecting life expectancy, literacy

and command over the resources to enjoy a decent standard of living. At this stage, the index

is an approximation for capturing the many dimensions of human choices” (HDR, p. 1).

For the first component –longevity– life expectancy at birth was the indicator.

For the second key component literacy figures were considered to be “only a crude

reflection of access to education, particularly to the good quality education so necessary for

productive life in modern society”.

The third key component of human development –command over resources needed for a

decent living–was considered the most difficult to measure simply, because it required data on

access to land, credit, income and other resources, but “given the scarce data on many of these

variables, we must for the time being make the best use of an income indicator. The most

readily available income indicator –per capita income– has wide national coverage” (HDR

1990, p. 12).

The human development index, the report stressed, “ranks countries very differently from

the way GNP per capita ranks them. The reason is that GNP per capita is only one of life's many

dimensions, while the human development index captures other dimensions as well. Sri Lanka,

Chile, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Tanzania and Thailand, among others, do far better on their human

development ranking than on their income ranking, showing that they have directed their

economic resources more towards some aspects of human progress. But Oman, Gabon, Saudi

Arabia, Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Cameroon, among others, do considerably worse on

their human development ranking than on their income ranking, showing that they have yet to

translate their income into corresponding levels of human development” (HDR 1990, pp.

15/16).

On a different note, the report recognized some limitations in measuring human

development, as, for example, in measuring freedom: “Human development is incomplete

without human freedom. Throughout history, people have been willing to sacrifice their lives

to gain national and personal liberty (…) The valuation we put on similar human development

achievements in different countries will be quite different depending on whether they were

accomplished in a democratic or an authoritarian framework (…) While the need for

qualitative judgement is clear, there is no simple quantitative measure available yet to capture

the many aspects of human freedom. To some extent, however, the human development index

(HDI) captures some aspects of human freedom (…) What is needed is considerable empirical

work to quantify various indicators of human freedom and to explore further the link between

human freedom and human development” (HDR 1990, p. 16).

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The main concluding key issues in planning, financing and implementing human

development strategies in the 1990s, according to the report, were four: “First, given the

derivative but a biding significance of goods and services in expanding human options,

countries must broaden the commodity base for national prosperity (…) Second, public action

is often necessary to supply social services and make them available to the entire population.

This applies particularly to education and health services, including water supply and sanitation

(…) Third, human potential will be wasted unless it is developed and used. Economic

development should create a suitable environment for the use of human talents (…) Freedom,

therefore, is the most vital component of human development strategies. People must be free

to actively participate in economic and political life setting developmental priorities,

formulating policies' implementing projects and choosing the form of government to influence

their cultural environment. Such freedom ensures that social goals do not become mechanical

devices in the hands of paternalistic governments. If human development is the outer shell,

freedom is its priceless pearl” (HDR 1990, pp. 83/84).

Finally, a special focus was made on urbanization and human development, mainly

because of environmental issues. On that point, the report stated: “To reverse urban

environmental deterioration in the 1990s, the governments of developing countries must:

Improve municipal waste collection coverage and efficiency; adopt environmentally sound

municipal waste treatment and disposal practices; coordinate pollution control actions across

levels of government and urban subsectors; incorporate environmental planning and

management techniques into citywide strategic planning and implementation; facilitate the

participation of the private sector in mobilising resources for environmental improvement.

Rapid urbanisation is transforming the developing countries, creating ever new problems but

also offering ever new opportunities. To solve the growing problems of cities and to unleash

the many possibilities for human development is going to depend heavily on better urban

management, considerably better” (HDR 1990, p. 95).

Through this 1990 report, the idea of human development technically broadened UN’s

official language.

In 1992 another decisive addition took place when sustainable development became the goal

of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, which produced several official documents, among them:

the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Forest Principles and the so-called

Agenda 21, a document of 800 pages, known as the Bible for Sustainable Development.

Meanwhile, and towards the end of that decade, S

EN resumed the elaboration of his theory

and published Development as Freedom in 1999, insisting mainly on two concepts: freedom and

capabilities and the interrelation and interdependence between them.

He stressed the relation between incomes and achievements, between commodities and

capabilities, “between our economic wealth and our ability to live as we would like. While there

is a connection between opulence and achievements, the linkage may or may not be very

strong and may well be extremely contingent on other circumstances. The issue is not the

ability to live forever (…) but the capability to live really long and to have a good life while

alive rather than a life of misery and unfreedom –things that would be strongly valued and

desired by nearly all of us. The gap between the two perspectives (that is between an exclusive

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concentration on economic wealth and a broader focus on the lives we can lead) is a major

issue in conceptualizing development” (S

EN, 1999, pp. 13/14).

According to him, “we generally have excellent reasons for wanting more income or

wealth. This is not because income and wealth are desirable for their own sake, but because,

typically, they are admirable general-purpose means for having more freedom to lead the kind

of lives we have reason to value (…) The ends and means of development require examination

a scrutiny for a fuller understanding of the development process; it is simply not adequate to

take as our basic objective just the maximization of income or wealth (…) Development has to

be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the freedoms we enjoy. Expanding

the freedoms that we have reasons to value not only makes our lives richer and more

unfettered, but also allows us to be fuller social persons” (S

EN, 1999, pp. 14/15).

That is why the analysis of development presented in that book treated “the freedoms of

individuals as the basic building blocks. Attention is thus paid particularly to the expansion of

the ‘capabilities’ of persons to lead the kind of lives they value and have reason to value. These

capabilities can be enhanced by public policy, but also, on the other side, the direction of

public policy can be influenced by the effective use of participatory capabilities by the public.

The two-way relationship is central to the analysis presented here. There are two distinct

reasons for the crucial importance of individual freedom in the concept of development,

related respectively to evaluation and effectiveness (…) Having greater freedom to do the

things one has reason to value is 1) significant in itself for the person’s overall freedom, and 2)

important in fostering the person's opportunity to have valuable outcomes. Both are relevant

to the evaluation of freedom of the members of the society and thus crucial to the assessment

of the society's development” (S

EN, 1999, p. 18).

All in all, the author argued that development should be seen as a process of expanding

the real freedoms that people enjoy.

Both Sen’s and Mahbub Ul-Haq’s ideas would have broad projections within UN and in

the academic world, even to the present day

e) The new millennium

At the turn of the millennium 189 UN country members adopted the UN Millennium

Declaration, which contained eight development goals that should be reached by 2015. These

were: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal primary education; to

promote gender equality and to empower women; to reduce child mortality; to improve

maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; to ensure environmental

sustainability; to promote global partnership for development. According to UN the last one

contains all the others and was agreed by all the countries in the world.

MARTHA NUSSBAUM, SABINA ALKYRE, JAY DRYDYK, SÉVERINE DENEULIN, TONY ATKINSON, INGRID

ROBEYNS, among many others have continued expanding these authors’ ideas and have been working on

different aspects of human development and capabilities, mainly through the Human Development and

Capabilities Association (a global community of academics and practitioners that seeks to build an intellectual

community around the ideas of human development and the capability approach, with members from more than

70 countries worldwide) whose first president was, precisely, A

MARTYA SEN.

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In 2015 UN’s Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon presented the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs) Report. The report held that the MDGs “helped to lift more than one billion

people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend

school than ever before and to protect our planet. They generated new and innovative

partnerships, galvanized public opinion and showed the immense value of setting ambitious

goals. By putting people and their immediate needs at the forefront, the MDGs reshaped

decision-making in developed and developing countries alike”. Yet, it added that “inequalities

persist and that progress has been uneven. The world’s poor remain overwhelmingly

concentrated in some parts of the world. In 2011, nearly 60 per cent of the world’s one billion

extremely poor people lived in just five countries. Too many women continue to die during

pregnancy or from childbirth-related complications. Progress tends to bypass women and

those who are lowest on the economic ladder or are disadvantaged because of their age,

disability or ethnicity. Disparities between rural and urban areas remain pronounced”, for that

reason it also concluded that despite many successes, the poorest and most vulnerable people

are being left behind, and that “looking ahead to the next fifteen years, there is no question

that we can deliver on our shared responsibility to put an end to poverty, leave no one behind

and create a world of dignity for all” (MDGs Report 2015, p.3).

As the MDGs era came to a conclusion UN’s General Assembly adopted, on September

, 2015

, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which included 17 Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets that shall be achieved by that year.

The goals are: no poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education;

gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and

economic growth; industry innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; make cities and

communities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; responsible consumption and

production; take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; care for life below

water; care for life on land; promote peace, justice and strong institutions; strengthen the

global partnership to achieve the goals.

The goals address the needs of people in both developed and developing countries,

emphasizing that no one should be left behind. Broad and ambitious in scope, the Agenda

addresses the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and

environmental, as well as important aspects related to peace, justice and effective institutions

IX. Human development sceptics

In spite of the strong and broad support that the theory of human development in its PNUD

version received worldwide, some authors began to question its effectiveness, mainly due to

the figures of global poverty and inequalities which continue affecting large populations in

developing countries.

In essence these authors do coincide with the general contents and aims of the theory, but

they strongly disbelieve they can be put into practice.

A/RES/71/1.

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/sustainable-development-goals-kick-off-with-

start-of-new-year/

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In that vein both the théories de la décroissance and the post-development theories have been

followed by a good number of thinkers.

a) Théories de la décroissance

As R

IST recalls, the English names for these theories have been degrowth theories or

downscaling theories (R

IST, 2008, p. 240).

Although N

ICHOLAS GEORGESCU-ROEGEN is considered as one of the fathers of the

décroissance due to his book The entropy law and the economic process, written in 1971, the théories de la

décroissance arose in France by the early XXI century.

There are several versions of these kinds of ideas, but all of them essentially focus on

economic and environmental arguments. They claim that indefinite economic growth is not

only impossible to achieve, but devastating, as well, both respecting social relations and

environment. Thus, they propose a reduction in the rates of growth

b) Post-development theories

Nevertheless, R

IST argues, as among décroissance authors there are to be found development

sceptics (in UN development version); others seriously concerned with the environment;

citizens dissatisfied with high levels of consumption; and libertarians anxious to beat the system,

as well, the lines of their arguments are quite dissimilar. That is the reason why these thinkers

have not found it easy to bring their followers together and have, therefore, lost strength

without having been able to embody into academic structures or more complete practices.

On their behalf, the post-development theories tend to show that human development thinkers

could not achieve a harmonious and equitable coexistence. They criticise the model imposed

by the US and Europe, and the still persistent development-North, underdevelopment-South

antinomy

They differ from décroissance authors, because they recognize the inevitability of growth, so

they no longer focus on trying to avoid it, but on trying to provide it with a different

substance.

All in all, they advocate for an informal, plural and locally-based economy, but they

haven’t been able to agree on a unique line of argument, either.

Among post-development authors, E

SCOBAR, for example, holds that development should no

longer be the main organising principle of social life; M

OHARTY, that development should not

only be defined by Western values; S

HIVA, RAHNEMA and ESTEVA have chosen to revalue

vernacular cultures and have insisted on the importance of social movements; and

EBBINGTON has made a call to build a new idea of development that might, at the same time,

be alternative and developmental, critical and practicable, focused on sustainability

Among others, LATOUCHE 1986, p. 706/708; LATOUCHE 2006; CAMILLE 2005; ARIÈS 2005; TERTRAIS 2006.

Among others, ESCOBAR 1995; ESTEVA 1980; ESTEVA et al. 2014.

Review based on ESCOBAR 2005, p. 17/31.

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X. Progress and development in the social doctrine of the Church

Right form its beginnings Christianism held that the individual has its own sphere of

liberty and fundamental rights.

Therefore, the ideas that arose regarding progress and development and their impact on

human beings and societies have always attracted the attention of the Church.

Nevertheless, the incorporation of these concepts in official documents arrived with some

delay and great caution and it was only from Pope Paul VI onwards that the social doctrine of

the Church focused on their meaning, scope and consequences

a) Caution and concern

The end of the XVIII century was marked by technological, economic, political and social

events which led –as it has been said– to the elaboration of the most varied theories regarding

the progress of mankind.

The Industrial and the French Revolutions led to the genesis of the first socialist ideas

which tried to organize Europe by the beginning of the XIX century and to overcome the

Manchesterian liberal scheme. By the second half of that century these theories became

stronger together with different scientific advances.

Within this context –which was also marked by a strong laicism, sometimes, even by anti-

clericalism– the Church adopted a cautious attitude towards the ideas of progress and

development; caution that sometimes led to a direct condemnation of these new theories with

a few exceptions, such as the works of D

E CHATEAUBRIAND and NEWTON who tried to link

progress and development to Christian doctrine.

Pius VII (Pope from 1800 to 1823), Gregory XVI (Pope form 1831 to 1846) and Pius IX

(Pope from 1846 to 1878) criticized the new ideas which, according to them, were based on

deep mistakes that led to the opposition and persecution of the catholic doctrine

b) The Industrial Revolution, social issues and the social doctrine of the Church

The negative impacts that the Industrial Revolution had on the poorest social levels made

some members of the Church analyse the new situation.

The Bishop of Mainz, W

ILHELM VON KETTELER, is known as the initiator of the German

catholic social movement. He was famous for his preachings on the social issues of the time

and had a strong influence on Popes like Leo XIII.

Leo XIII, with his Rerum Novarum –“New Things”, subtitled “On capital and labour”–

opened the Church to global society (C

ÁRCEL ORTÍ 2009, p. 17).

The caution in adopting these ideas did not prevent the Church –especially some of its institutions and

congregations– from working to protect the most vulnerable groups, those who had been left behind from the

“benefits” of progress. Such the case of the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Augustinians and the Jesuits, as well

as that of men like D

ON ORIONE and DON BOSCO and institutions as Caritas Internationalis, whose aim was not

only limited to fight hunger and poverty, but also extended to working for the inclusion of the poorest social

classes, especially by promoting education.

See Pius VII’s Apostolic Letter Post tam diuturnas; Gregory XVI’s Encyclical Mirari vos, subtitled “On modern

mistakes”; Pius IX’s Noscitis et nobiscum, Quanta cura and the Syllabus of errors.

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In that document he claimed that “some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the

misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the

ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective

organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion.

Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and

helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The

mischief has been increased by rapacious usury (…) To this must be added that the hiring of

labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a

small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring

poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself”

Thus, it was added that: “The foremost duty, therefore, of the rulers of the State should

be to make sure that the laws and institutions, the general character and administration of the

commonwealth, shall be such as of themselves to realize public well-being and private

prosperity. This is the proper scope of wise statesmanship and is the work of the rulers. Now a

State chiefly prospers and thrives through moral rule, well-regulated family life, respect for

religion and justice, the moderation and fair imposing of public taxes, the progress of the arts

and of trade, the abundant yield of the land-through everything, in fact, which makes the

citizens better and happier. Hereby, then, it lies in the power of a ruler to benefit every class in

the State, and amongst the rest to promote to the utmost the interests of the poor; and this in

virtue of his office, and without being open to suspicion of undue interference - since it is the

province of the commonwealth to serve the common good. And the more that is done for the

benefit of the working classes by the general laws of the country, the less need will there be to

seek for special means to relieve them (…) There is another and deeper consideration which

must not be lost sight of. As regards the State, the interests of all, whether high or low, are

equal. The members of the working classes are citizens by nature and by the same right as the

rich; they are real parts, living the life which makes up, through the family, the body of the

commonwealth; and it need hardly be said that they are in every city very largely in the

majority. It would be irrational to neglect one portion of the citizens and favour another, and

therefore the public administration must duly and solicitously provide for the welfare and the

comfort of the working classes (…) If we turn not to things external and material, the first

thing of all to secure is to save unfortunate working people from the cruelty of men of greed,

who use human beings as mere instruments for money-making. It is neither just nor human so

to grind men down with excessive labor as to stupefy their minds and wear out their bodies”

As from Rerum Novarum other documents became important when referring to social

issues, such as the Social Code of Malinas (1927), Pius XI’s Quadragesimo anno (1931), Pius XII’s

radio messages (1953), John XXIII’s Mater et magistra (1961) and Pacem in Terris (1963).

c) Development and human development in the social doctrine of the Church

It was Pope Paul VI who began writing steadily about development first, and human

development, later on. He was influenced by thinkers as L

EBRET, PERROUX and MARITAIN

Pt. 3.

Pts. 32, 33 and 42.

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and was convinced that John XXIII’s legacy through the Second Vatican Council should be

deepened on the subject of development.

In his Populorum progressio (1967), subtitled “On the development of peoples”, he held right

from the beginning that “The progressive development of peoples is an object of deep interest

and concern to the Church. This is particularly true in the case of those peoples who are trying

to escape the ravages of hunger, poverty, endemic disease and ignorance; of those who are

seeking a larger share in the benefits of civilization and a more active improvement of their

human qualities; of those who are consciously striving for fuller growth”

The whole document was meant to analyse the many problems that arose worldwide

regarding development and the inequalities between those countries and peoples more

powerful and those less developed. He advocated for an integral development for men and

women, and stressed, following L

EBRET’s ideas: “The development we speak of here cannot

be restricted to economic growth alone. To be authentic, it must be well rounded; it must

foster the development of each man and of the whole man (…) What counts for us is man—

each individual man, each human group, and humanity as a whole”

. He also pointed out the

responsibilities of all men and women regarding the promotion of mankind’s supportive

development and marked the obstacles to be removed.

One of the best-known quotations of this document is the title of its points 76 and 77:

“Development, the new name for peace”. According to the Pope, “Extreme disparity between

nations in economic, social and educational levels provokes jealousy and discord, often putting

peace in jeopardy (…) When we fight poverty and oppose the unfair conditions of the present,

we are not just promoting human well-being; we are also furthering man's spiritual and moral

development, and hence we are benefiting the whole human race. For peace is not simply the

absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power (…) Nations are the architects of

their own development, and they must bear the burden of this work; but they cannot

accomplish it if they live in isolation from others. Regional mutual aid agreements among the

poorer nations, broader based programs of support for these nations, major alliances between

nations to coordinate these activities—these are the road signs that point the way to national

development and world peace”

Accordingly, he concluded: “Finally, a word to those of you who have heard the cries of

needy nations and have come to their aid. We consider you the promoters and apostles of

genuine progress and true development. Genuine progress does not consist in wealth sought

for personal comfort or for its own sake; rather it consists in an economic order designed for

the welfare of the human person (…) We bless you with all our heart, and we call upon all men

of good will to join forces with you as a band of brothers. Knowing, as we all do, that

development means peace these days, what man would not want to work for it with every

ounce of his strength? No one, of course. So we beseech all of you to respond wholeheartedly

to Our urgent plea, in the name of the Lord”

Pt. 1.

Pt. 14.

Pts. 76 & 77.

Pts. 86 & 87.

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Pope John Paul II also addressed the subject of development in his Encyclicals Laborem

Excercens, Solicitudo Rei Socialis and Centesimus Annus, as well as Pope Benedict XVI in Spe Salvi

and Caritas in Veritate.

Finally, Pope Francis has dedicated parts of some of his works to this issue

. In Laudato

Si’ (2015), subtitled “On care for our common home”, he focused on several items related to

development, the importance of sustainability and the need of taking care of the environment.

He claims that the “urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to

bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we

know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving

plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building

our common home. Here I want to recognize, encourage and thank all those striving in

countless ways to guarantee the protection of the home which we share. Particular

appreciation is owed to those who tirelessly seek to resolve the tragic effects of environmental

degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest”

. And points to “the intimate relationship

between the poor and the fragility of the planet, the conviction that everything in the world is

connected, the critique of new paradigms and forms of power derived from technology, the

call to seek other ways of understanding the economy and progress, the value proper to each

creature, the human meaning of ecology, the need for forthright and honest debate, the serious

responsibility of international and local policy, the throwaway culture and the proposal of a

new lifestyle”

Francis stresses that “inequity affects not only individuals but entire countries; it compels

us to consider an ethics of international relations. A true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly

between the global north and south, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the

environment, and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long

periods of time (…)The warming caused by huge consumption on the part of some rich

countries has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world (…) The developed countries

ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable

energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable

development. The poorest areas and countries are less capable of adopting new models for

reducing environmental impact because they lack the wherewithal to develop the necessary

processes and to cover their costs. We must continue to be aware that, regarding climate

change, there are differentiated responsibilities”

He adds “It is right to rejoice in these advances and to be excited by the immense

possibilities which they continue to open up before us, for science and technology are

wonderful products of a God-given human creativity (…)How can we not feel gratitude and

appreciation for this progress, especially in the fields of medicine, engineering and

communications?”

. Nevertheless “There is a tendency to believe that every increase in power

See Evangelii Gaudium, pts. 52/60 and pts. 186, 192, 202, 203 &206.

Pt. 13.

Pt. 16.

Pts. 51 & 52.

Pt. 102.

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means an increase of ‘progress’ itself (…)as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow

from technological and economic power as such (…) our immense technological development

has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and

conscience”

. “…economy accepts every advance in technology with a view to profit, without

concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings. Finance overwhelms the real

economy. The lessons of the global financial crisis have not been assimilated, and we are

learning all too slowly the lessons of environmental deterioration (…)the market cannot

guarantee integral human development and social inclusion (…)we have a sort of ‘super

development’ of a wasteful and consumerist kind which forms an unacceptable contrast with

the ongoing situations of dehumanizing deprivation, while we are all too slow in developing

economic institutions and social initiatives which can give the poor regular access to basic

resources. We fail to see the deepest roots of our present failures, which have to do with the

direction, goals, meaning and social implications of technological and economic growth”

However, the Pope encourages mankind: “Yet we can once more broaden our vision. We

have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another

type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral”

; “we need

to grow in the conviction that a decrease in the pace of production and consumption can at

times give rise to another form of progress and development”

;“if in some cases sustainable

development were to involve new forms of growth, then in other cases, given the insatiable

and irresponsible growth produced over many decades, we need also to think of containing

growth by setting some reasonable limits and even retracing our steps before it is too late”

And he concludes “For new models of progress to arise, there is a need to change ‘models

of global development’; this will entail a responsible reflection on ‘the meaning of the economy

and its goals with an eye to correcting its malfunctions and misapplications’(…) Put simply, it

is a matter of redefining our notion of progress. A technological and economic development

which does not leave in its wake a better world and an integrally higher quality of life cannot be

considered progress”

Pt. 105.

Pt. 109.

Pt. 112.

Pt. 191.

Pt. 193.

Pt. 194.

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