Book Reviews 389

government to the population. The communication network is controlled not only to protect
the integrity of the state from undesirable influences but also actively to promote
development programmes and objectives. Most Singaporeans accept this situation;
presumably as one of the costs of spectacular economic development.
As a research study, the analysis of policy-making and planning at the national level will
seem superficial to many readers, partly due to lack of information on policy discussion in
Cabinet meetings and Ministerial Committees, details of which are not revealed to the public.
Also, researchers will find little to interest them from a methodological or theoretical
standpoint. But the book will certainly interest anyone professionally involved in the public
service or in commerce in Singapore and provide the general reader with some insight into a
pragmatic approach to development planning, which has proved to be so effective.

R.A. RAITT
R IPA

AN INTRODUCTION T O DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN T H E THIRD WORLD

Diana Conyers and Peter Hill
Wiley, Chichester, 1984, 271 pp.

This book is necessary reading for all those concerned with planning. In effect, this embraces
just about everyone, for we must all plan to some extent, and this book provides a full
understanding of what planning is-or should be-about. Do not be misled by the title; the
book makes particular reference to the Third World but the plain and sympathetic style, the
logical sequence and the comprehensive cover of the subject have universal appeal.
The text covers three main categories. Part 1, the Nature and Scope of Development
Planning, introduces the subject, explains concepts of development and reviews the history of
planning up to the present state of the art. Part 2, dealing with the technique of planning,
begins with the detail of the process, looks at collection and use of data, modelling,
forecasting and appraisal techniques and concludes with a most valuable look at that very
important part of the process, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The third part of
the book gives detailed attention to organization for planning and, in my view, goes a long
way to explain the problems that we have all experienced when somehow, the ‘organization’
seems to hinder progress rather than help it.
The list of excellent points made in the book is too long for detailed comment but some are
worth special mention. In particular, the stress laid on the purpose of planning being to
produce a beneficial result, not just to produce a plan, that planning is a means to an end, not
an end in itself, that planning and implementation are inseparable if the effort made is to be
effective and that, in todays world, planning must be a multi-professional team activity, are
lessons that appear to need constant repetition and emphasis.
For those at the beginning of a career, this is a very valuable statement of past and present,
with hope for the future. For those long practiced and experienced, it is a salutary reminder of
the issues of omission and commission, examples of which are still encountered in the real
world, whereas for anyone directly concerned with planning in developing countries, this is a
clear and understanding comment on the particular problems that exist, not least in the
transfer of methods and techniques from one cultural environment to another.
At one point in the text, the authors say ‘We have attempted to adopt a realistic approach,
emphasising those techniques and procedures most likely to be relevant and to point out the
practical problems that may occur when trying to apply them’. They have indeed succeeded in
this.

WARREN
PANTHER
RIPA