bring about in performance from the human factor (HF) perspective. At the
moment, existing studies are carried out within the confines of established
paradigms, always focusing on ceteris paribus (i.e., the "all things equal")
assumptions that form the foundation pillars of orthodox development think-
ing, theorizing, and policy.

In this book, this practice is broken, in that the key assumptions, presuppo-
sitions, and hypotheses of orthodox development thinking, theories, and policy
are critically analyzed from the HF perspective, and their validity is evalu-
ated. The presentation in this book also suggests and emphasizes the view
that until developing countries focus on HF development, their desire for and
pursuit of democratization, popular (grassroots) participation, a clean envi-
ronment, institutional reform, gender balance, social justice, equality, free
press and speech, the preservation of the rule of law, the protection of human
rights and dignity, and the like will end in total failure. By failing to allot the
requisite amount of existing resources to the design and operation of ongoing
HF development programs, developing countries will continue to experience
much more significant levels of underdevelopment and total humiliation than
was the case in the past.

The question of what constitutes development has occupied the attention
of planners, policymakers, and development theorists for generations. Many
scholars have written volumes of scholarly papers, books, and treatises on
the concept of development and its practice. They have tried to both define
the concept of economic growth and development and suggest the various
ways whereby a nation can achieve and sustain it. In his attempt to define
what constitutes development, Seers ( 1969) noted that the critical questions
that need to be asked include the following: What has been happening to
poverty? What has been happening to unemployment? What has been hap-
pening to inequality? In view of these questions, Seers argues that if the an-
swer to any of these questions suggests that the magnitude of the specific
variable has been on the increase, then development has not yet happened in
the country. Seers would consider development to have happened in a coun-
try if any of these variables or a combination of them has fallen in magnitude
and continued to decline over time. That is, inequality, poverty, and unem-
ployment must all decline if development has actually occurred in the coun-
try. In its 1970 view regarding the object of development, the United Nations
suggests that "the ultimate objective of development must be to bring about a
sustained improvement in the well-being of the individual and bestow ben-
efits on all. If undue privileges, extremes of wealth and social injustices per-
sist, then development fails in the essential purpose."

A detailed review and analyses of the various views held by development
theorists regarding the meaning and object of development makes it clear
that while scholars seem to agree on what constitutes the meaning and object
of development, they are poles apart regarding how countries should go about
developing plans, formulating policies, initiating programs, and implement-

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