Human development: Perspectives, gaps, and issues for the MMCs

This chapter contends that 'development' is a matter of growth as well as stability and may have four dimensions: quality, capability, equity, and institutional. It suggests that the European colonization transformed the natural economic growth pattern in most Muslim majority countries (MMCs), like everywhere else in Africa and Asia to establish a (self-reinforcing) condition of 'underdevelopment' devoid of the 'capability' to develop. This chapter is divided into two major sections dealing with the approaches of studying (human) development, and some explanations for development differentials among people and countries. It suggests that the failure to diversify economic activities, curb rentier economy, tackle the misuse of economic and political powers, or desist external influence (that often reinforces the above) may explain lower achievements in human development in the MMCs.