This paper presents a conceptual view on development and its translation into development policies. It argues that society's perception of development is structured by conventions, which provide a view of the past, present and future and, at the same time, allows a certain hierarchy of problems and solutions to such problems. The prevalence of a specific convention depends on the international conditions faced by this society and on the distribution of economic and political power within that society. Therefore, in complex societies there is always a struggle for hegemony between competing development conventions.
Development; convention; policies; political economy