Introduction:

Progress was originally an idea and an aspiration of the 18th century, and development was an idea and a project of the 20th century that has continued into the 21st century. In the Enlightenment the philosophers realized that the ideal of reason prevailing over tradition and religion was something that had ceased to be utopian and could be achieved; in the 19th century, the development of science and technology strengthened the idea of progress, that Auguste Comte defined as the fundamental rule of society, whereas socialist intellectuals and workers called for progress, which they identified with democracy and socialism. But in the first part of the 20th century, the two world wars and Nazism were a regression towards barbarism that made the idea of progress wane out. Yet, with the end of the war and the creation of the United Nations, there was the acknowledgement of how backward most countries had become in relation to a few industrialized countries, and the idea of development emerged as the new designation for progress, now with a strong economic bias. In the following 60 years, the achievements did not fulfill the great hopes, but almost all countries experienced substantial improvement in their standards of living, what confirmed that development was possible. But new problems emerged. For a time the fear was the end of the modern civilization by a nuclear war; more recently, the real challenge that humanity faces is the global warming in consequence mainly of the greenhouse effect. Progress has been challenged again. I know how complex and contradictory this issue is, but I have always believed in progress or in development, not as the endless improvement of the human conditions, but as the progressive achievement of the political objectives that modern societies set for themselves. Maybe I am wrong. In this chapter, I will discuss the theme, relating progress to development and both to economic growth.