15 

 Not all societies have these elements. It further presupposes a state of 

 institutional maturity that grants at least toleration to the new and vulner- 

 able special-purpose activities. This institutional maturity and toleration 

 is not a characteristic of underdevelopment. If a critical review of cur- 

 rent effort, domestic and foreign, to locate talent and bind it into func- 

 tioning activities of critical size shows progress to have been disappointing, 

 this says nothing about the competence and dedication of those who undertook 

 such effort. It may simply be pointing to elements that were not available 

 to them and suggest strategies by which these missing elements may be supplied, 

 possibly with external help. Such a review, however, does lead us to an 

 examination of the entities' interface characteristics which provided the 

 essential productivity and continuity in the advanced sector case. 



The semi- independent technological research institutions have 

 most squarely faced the twin issues of authority and research autonomy. 

 The fact that they have typically sought to disassociate themselves from the 

 large government-sponsored universities indicates where they felt the threat 

 to their autonomy lay. The university in the underdeveloped nation - in 

 common with all human institutions - has been a product of its times. It 

 has had more pressing goals than the nurturance of scientific research 

 directed at technological innovation. These goals have had to do with the 

 establishment of a national identity, the resolution of pressing power issues, 

 and the socialization of the young in terms of these identities and resolu- 

 tions. The fledging research institute had other purposes which it would have 

 had to subordinate to university values had it sought full membership in 

 the academic community. Typically, it struck out on its own; but not completely 

 so because, in escaping one tyranny, it exposed itself to a second. 



