michael perelman wrote: > > Peripheral countries have two choices in development. Either they can > try to emulate the technologies of the powerful capitalist countries or > they can develop their own indigenous technologies. But doesn't this amount to the same thing? Import-substitution? By indigenous, do you mean along the lines of "Small is Beautiful"? I think "small is beautiful" and Gandhi type development ideas are very worthwhile provided that they are not imposed by dictatorship and by fiat. India might be in a better state today if had followed some of Gandhi's economic ideas rather than the big Stalinist style industrialization plans. However, with cultural imperialism and the Big Mac, it might be hard to convince a majority to go with lower productivity indigenous technology. There's a lot of "we want everything Americans have and we want it now" in the third world today. But rising expectations can lead to serious political change. I don't know. Sam Pawlett
