The aim is to examine different views of the factors that stand in the way of an development orientation in government and to identify possible ways forward. There has been a long debate, which will be reviewed in this course, about whether governmental administration really can act as an agent of development. This came to a crux during the 1980's and 1990's with the strong assertion of the view that the role of the public sector should be reduced. More recently, there has been a re-assertion of the role of government in providing the necessary conditions for development.