Self Reliancae:new approach tooldideas JOHAN GALTUNG (*) ln discussions of development in recent years the term "selfreliance''. is steadily becoming more and more frequent, even competing with "development" itself. One tremendous advantage with the term "self-reliance" 1s its open-endedness. The term has a certain nucleus of content, but it is up to all of us to give it more precise connotations (as a matter of fact, that would be the only self-reliant way of going about defining the term "self-reliance"). The followlng is one suggestion, one effort to fill it with content, even to build some kind of ideology around it. No doubt that ideology will have Important similarities with basic aspects of anarchist thought. Roland Berger has this to say about the Chinese origln of the idea: 1 "ln his August 1945 speech Mao Tse-tung used the phrase 'tzu li keng sheng' which literally translated is 'regeneration through our own efforts'. This more accurately conveys the true meaning of the policy than the term 'self-reliance'. 'Regeneration through our own efforts' also makes it clear that this is a policy radically different from 'self-sufficiency' or 'autarchy'. lt is in fact the mass line applied on the economic front and stems directly from Mao Tse-tung's consistent emphasis that 'the people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the ma~ing c•J Chair in Conflict and Peace Research, University of Oslo ' Roland Berger, "Seif-Rellance, Pest and Present", Eastern Horizon, Vol. IX No. 3, pp. 8-24. Aiso see the paper prepared for the 25th Pugwash Conference (Madras, 13-19 January 1976) "The Role of Self-Reliance ln Alternative Strategies for Oevelopment", by Ashok l¾lrthasarathl wlth a summary by the Secretary - General of Pugwash. One particular aspect of self-reliance 1s analyzed ln Surendra J. Patel, "ColiecUve Self-Rellance of Developlng Countrles (WFUNA Annual Summer School, Background Paper 6). Also see the Cocoyoc Declaratlon for the general phllosophy of self-rellance. 49 4
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