Abstract
New directions in the debate on social development According to World Bank data, 1.3 billion of the world’s population live on less than a dollar a day and are thus in a situation of extreme poverty. Two-fifths of the world’s population lack adequate health services and electricity (Wolfensohn, 1995). According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there has been a marked increase in the number of poor people whose income has actually declined. Between 1965 and 1980, this situation affected 200 million poor people; between 1980 and 1993, it affected one billion. Some 800 million people do not receive adequate food; nearly 500 million suffer from chronic malnutrition; and 17 million people die each year from curable parasitic infections and diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and tuberculosis (UNDP, 1996). The persistence and aggravation of social problems and the widespread demands for their solution have sparked a broad debate which is taking a fresh look at most of the basic premises of social action in recent decades. The new debate which arose from a feeling of powerlessness at the lack of answers and the limited results of models which on paper were supposed to provide effective solutions, is challenging basic aspects of their validity and seeking alternative analytical models which might be more useful. Some of the basic elements of the debate which now involves governments, academic institutions, members of civil society, international cooperation and funding agencies, and world public opinion are considered here. Questioning the ‘trickle-down’ model In recent decades, a number of popular approaches have offered an answer based essentially on ‘trickle-down’ theory. The well-known basic assumption of this theory is that making huge sacrifices in order to attain macroeconomic goals involving economic and financial equilibria will bring about economic progress, and that the benefits will ultimately trickle down to the entire population, includ
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