The Dialectics of Class and State Formation and of Development Policy in Papua New Guinea

In this paper an attempt is made to review the effects of colonial rule on the transformation of society in what is now Papua New Guinea, and in particular on the process of class formation. The paper also reviews the ways in which, in the first years after Independence in 1975, by supporting capitalist modernization in the context of Papua New Guinea's growing incorporation into the dominant world economy, the State promoted uneven growth.