The paper argues against the currently fashionable case for “state minimalism”. It argues for a strong, activist state, though operating on a different basis and in different areas from the many recently failed interventionist states and many developing countries. The paper seeks to rescue...

Sometimes the change in the fashions of thinking about development appears like a comedy of errors, a lurching from one fad to another. Economic growth, employment creation, jobs and justice, redistribution with growth, basic needs, bottom-up development, participatory development, sustainable...

It is argued that in educating economists we should sacrifice some of the more technical aspects of economics (which can be learned later), in favour of the compulsory inclusion of (a) philosophy, (b) political science and (c) economic history. Three reasons for interdisciplinary studies are...