External and internal efforts to help developing countries achieve growth and economic stability, based on Western models, have resulted in frustration at best and in the creation of serious new problems without the resolution of existing ones at worst. Professor Gharajedaghi contends that this general failure stems not from a lack of expertise but from a fundamental misconception of the development process. Challenging common assumptions about the nature of national development planning, he proposes practical new approaches aimed at fostering national and local planning initiatives rather than continued reliance on external and traditional development models. This study is the product of more than 25 years of research and experience in planning in developing nations. It presents a flexible theoretical framework that reflects philosophical, methodological, and conceptual aspects of planning and it may be readily adapted to a full range of development situations.