Denis Goulet in Cardernos de Estudos Sociais, vol. 18, no 1 (Jan/Jun 2002): 35-51.

Development was long viewed in reductionist economic terms. Critical
assessment of performance eventually led to making development debates multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary. It was belatedly recognized that development is a value-laden issue demanding explicitly ethical analysis. Ethically based development calls for a
reversal of the inversion of means and ends by development actors. As the UNDP notes, economic development is a means to a broader end: qualitative human development. Globalization produces good and bad effects. The entry into arenas of development decision-making of new actors — NGOs and other agents of civil society — re-frames the terms of development debates. There are growing demands from affected populations and institutional actors in civil society to define their own development. This challenges elite decision-making of dominant international financial institutions, great power governments, and large international business firms.

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