At the risk of patronizing this learned body, recall that Germany in the
19th Century played catch-up to pioneering industrialized England, and
enjoyed what historians in my youth (long ago) called "the advantage of a
late start". From this and parallel cases Alexander Gerschenkron
popularized his "theory of relative backwardness". Later writers came along
with new names for such old ideas, and we are caviling over who coined
"economic development"! The Bible refers to "old wine in new bottles" (or
is it vice versa?), and we, to mix a metaphor or two, are rediscovering the
wheel. Maybe it is time to broaden our horizons in space and time before
outsiders peek and see the wheels coming off our pretensions to deep inquiry
into important matters.
Mason Gaffney
-----Original Message-----
From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Daniele Besomi
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] The Idea of Development
Somehow related to Spencer Banzhaf's post, I cannot help thinking that the
etymology of the term is not innocent here. Both the etym and the usages
listed by the Oxford English Dictionary incorporate the idea of an unfolding
of something that is already fully inscribed (even if only implicitly) into
the object or process under consideration.
The implication is that the process of development has a specific teleology:
developed countries are more advanced along the traced way, while
underdeveloped (or, more charitably, developing) countires are bound to
follow (some faster, some slower) that same route. The teleology is fully
contained within the premises: history has already ended.
(I am not, of course, claiming that all, or even most, writers on
development shared this perspective. Some writers, however, and some
politicaly bodies, surely do)
Below a transcription of the definitions given by the OED.
Daniele Besomi
Etymology: < French développe-r, Old French (12–13th cent.) desvoleper,
-volosper, -voloper, 14th cent. desvelopper (whence an earlier English form
disvelop v.), = Provençaldesvolopar, -volupar, Italian sviluppare ‘to
unwrap, to disentangle, to rid free’ (Florio), <des-, Latin dis- + the
Romance verb which appears in modern Italian as viluppare ‘to enwrap, to
bundle, to folde, to roll up, to entangle, to trusse up, to heape up’,
viluppo ‘an enwrapping, a bundle, a fardle, a trusse, an enfolding’
(Florio).
The process or fact of developing; the concrete result of this process:
1. A gradual unfolding, a bringing into fuller view; a fuller disclosure or
working out of the details of anything, as a plan, a scheme, the plot of a
novel. Also quasi-concr. that in which the fuller unfolding is embodied or
realized.
2. Evolution or bringing out from a latent or elementary condition; the
production of a natural force, energy, or new form of matter.
3. The growth and unfolding of what is in the germ; the condition of that
which is developed:
a. of organs and organisms.
b. Of races of plants and animals: The same asevolution n.; the evolutionary
process and its result.development theory or development hypothesis(Biol.):
the doctrine of Evolution; applied especially to that form of the doctrine
taught by Lamarck (died 1829).
c. The bringing out of the latent capabilities (of anything); the fuller
expansion (of any principle or activity).
d. The act or process of developing (see develop v. 3f) a mine, site,
estate, property, or the like; also, a developed tract of land. Freq.
attrib., esp. indevelopment work (see also sense 11 below). Cf.ribbon
development n. at ribbon n. Compounds 3.
e. The economic advancement of a region or people, esp. one currently
under-developed (sense 3b). [the earlies example cited of usage in this
sense is dated 1902
4. Gradual advancement through progressive stages, growth from within.
5. A developed or well-grown condition; a state in which anything is in
vigorous life or action.
6. The developed result or product; a developed form of some earlier and
more rudimentary organism, structure, or system.=
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