We are grateful to Deepak Lal for this essay, the nineteenth in the Center's series of Occasional Papers on development themes by distinguished scholars and policy makers. Political Economy and Public Policy takes fundamental issues in trade and development policy and subjects them to well-based economic analysis in a form that is easily accessible to the non-specialist. Distinguished contributors address some of the following questions: Are critics of outward-orientated development wrong? What caused the financial crisis of East Asia? Who supports trade and aid in the US? And, what are the conditions needed to promote growth? They also look forward to what trade policies and agreements will be needed in the future.