Growth, Development, Progress and Evolution

Growth, Development, Progress and Evolution
The four functions of an efficient society
Alfredo Ascanio (askain)
Published 2008-10-05 11:51 (KST)


Although people use these terms as if they were equal, the truth is these terms are different phenomena.

Growth is the temporary expansion of the social product.

Development is the growth of the potential social product that has a country.

Progress is the increase of goods and services to benefit to society as a whole.

Evolution is the qualitative change of the economic organization of society (institutional changes).

America for many years grew and developed, but its progress and evolution have been questioned. Not all people have the same benefits as others. Not all institutions, as the big banks and Wall Street have had any significant changes to social benefits.

The current crisis is a good lesson for the US to progress and achieve its institutional evolution.

Obama and McCain are calling for the reform of the Banks and Wall Street, and Obama is asking benefits for people who have lost their home, for people who are paying high taxes and for people who pay social insurance.

Obama and McCain already know that a country can grow without development, a developed country can grow without progress, and also a country grows, succeeds in its development and the country progresses, but without structural changes in its institutions.

With this crisis we noticed that some institutional changes destroy or neutralize the potential for growth, development and progress. The evolution is not analyzed with the tools that are used to study the growth and economic development, because evolution is a qualitative issue.

Social tensions, mistrust in the future as elements of economic decline, because people feel that the gross domestic product grows but the distribution of benefits is not the most appropriate.

"The progress and growth can be separated. A country can have growth without progress," said economist Julio Olivera of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This phenomenon is best known in Latin America and in other poor countries of the world.


Alfredo Ascanio is a professor of economics at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela.
©2008 OhmyNews

Other articles by reporter Alfredo Ascanio