The Development Economics Division of the Hungarian Economists' Society run a series of debates on between early 1995 till the end of 1996. These debates focusing on a scientifically based economic policy that could be an alternative to neoliberalism have been published in a volume introduced here.

The correction of the fundamentally neoliberal economic policy of Hungary is not just possible but inevitable and necessary too. In the current situation, both external and internal conditions facilitate a change in the course of economic policy.

The last fifty years did not lead towards an equalization between the development levels of national economies. This is not only a consequence of market imperfections, as it claimed by neoclassical economics, but a natural impact of the operation of market mechanisms. The authour explains what mechanisms in the economic relations between developed and underdeveloped countries create uneven development.

According to the author, the catching-up models of certain Third World countries focusing on industrialisation cannot be applied in Eastern Europe because in this region the national economies have been industrialised. The adjustment to Europe requires dynamic economic development though in practice both capital importing and capital accumulation strategies have to face a number of obstacles.