The New Theory aims at self-sufficiency for farmers to a reasonable extent, in keeping with the overriding principle of moderation, the Middle Way. They are not meant to turn back to an ancient way of life, in which individuals provide for themselves in every aspect. Instead, farmers are empowered by means of producing enough food to sustain themselves, while benefiting from basic trading of produce and production factors to their full potential. They are encouraged to organize themselves as groups for enhanced bargaining power and efficiency in marketing and trading with outside parties, with mutual trade benefits.
His Majesty the King succinctly explained the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy for the first time in his royal address to well-wishers on the eve of his birthday anniversary on 4 December 1997, in this remark:
By sufficiency, we do not mean that each family must produce its own food, weave its own clothes. That is just too much.
His Majesty gave a further explanation in his royal address on the same occasion of the following year, on 4 December 1998. He provided a guideline for the implementation of the Sufficiency Economy:
This Sufficiency Economy can be implemented for only half, not the entire economy. Even one fourth is good enough, not one fourth of the area, but one fourth of the action.
This implies that the implementation of Sufficiency Economy need not cover the economy of an entire country, which is impossible. Should one family or one village turn to Sufficiency Economy entirely, it would be like taking backward steps to the Stone Age.
Faculty members of the Faculty of Economic Development, at the National Institute of Development Administration, in 1999 conducted a study on the New Theory pertaining to economic development. The main thrust of the New Theory was shown to correspond with the theories of several thinkers and theorists in economic development in the West. The three phases of the New Theory, for instance, are interlinked as the progression in economic development from a subsistence economy to commercialization, in line with various economic development theories.