International assistance programmes for developing countries are in urgent need of revision. Continuous testing and verification is required if development activity is to cope effectively with the uncertainty and complexity of the development process. This examines the alternatives and offers an approach which focuses on strategic planning, administrative procedures that facilitate innovation, responsiveness and experimentation, and on decision-making processes that join learning with action. A useful text for academics and practitioners in development studies, geography and sociology.

Dennis A. Rondinelli

Preface. 1. The Problem of Development Administration: Coping with Complexity and Uncertainty. 2. Development Policies as Social Experiments: From Macroeconomic Growth to Sectoral Development. 3. Development Policies as Social Experiments: From Growth-With-Equity to Structual Adjustment. 4. Designing Development Projects: The Limits of Rationalistic Planning and Management. 5. Implementing Development Projects as Policy Experiments: Toward Adaptive Administration. 6. Reorienting Development Administration: Principles, Problems and Opportunities. References.