Bognár József: Economic policy and planning in developing countries (Budapest, 1968)
Economic Policy and Planning in Developing Countries by József Bognár Our civilization is being threatened by two grave dangers—a nuclear war and the fearfully widening gulf between the industrial countries and the economically underdeveloped ones. Can the latter danger be averted by rational political and economic actions or will the world turn into a theatre of tragic conflicts, of fratricidal struggles and “minor” wars without victors in the decades to come? Are the old and new institutions of the present world fit for creating stable international conditions accelerating the growth of the underdeveloped countries? Is it conceivable that, while maintaining a wide-scale exchange of goods and services, international planning will be instituted, and co-ordinated actions carried out and that a certain regrouping of economic resources will be achieved in some regions in the near future? Can human, institutional and national considerations and organization attain a level required for actions of this type? An accelerated economic growth necessary to overcome centuries’ old backwardness is something more than a mere multiplication of production processes and apparatuses. A process started deliberately and from above presupposes a system of actions embracing the totality of political, economic, social and cultural changes. Only such progressive governments are capable of establishing a system of similar actions as realize the grave contradictions