every nation strives after development. Economic progress is an essential component, but it is not the only component. As noted in Chapter 1, development is not purely an economic phenomenon. In an ultimate sense, it must encompass more than the material and financial side of people's lives, to expand human freedoms. Development should therefore be perceived as a multidimensional process involving the reorganization and reorientation of entire economic and social systems. In addition to improvements in incomes and output, it typically involves radical changes in institutional, social, and administrative structures as well as in popular attitudes and even customs and beliefs. Finally, although development is usually defined in a national context, its more widespread realization may necessitate modification of the international economic and social system as well In this chapter, we explore the historical and intellectual evolution in scholarly thinking about how and why development does or does not take place. We do this by examining four major and often competing development theories. You will see that each offers valuable insights and a useful perspective on the nature of the development process. Some newer models of development and underdevelopment draw eclectically on the classic theories and we consider them in Chapter 4. Approaches to the analysis of economic growth are introduced throughout this review of alternative theories of development and are then amplified in three chapter appendixes.