The World Bank and the IMF dominate policy-making in Africa today. This book considers the consistency between their adjustment policies and long-run development needs, with an analysis of country experience. An alternative development strategy is proposed.

This collection of papers by some of the world's leading development economists is remarkable for its wide scope. It covers such varied topics as stagflation in the third world; the extension of free trade to include international investment; the early 1980s in Latin America; the economic growth of Africa and communal land tenure systems and their role in rural development. As well as representing important contributions in themselves, the papers acquire unity from a similarity in approach - always giving priority to reality if it comes into conflict with theoretical bias.