The issue of a rural policy—whether or not we have one, what one should look like, should we have one—has been discussed more specifically in the mid-1980s. This is a result of the general economic crisis that has affected rural areas, and the realization that agricultural policy has only a limited impact. Professor Barkley has provided us with a valuable and interesting context within which to examine the need for and content of a rural development policy. His paper should force us to raise such questions as:

1. 1. Have the ways we dealt with rural problems, i.e., our rural policy, changed in any substantial way?

2. 2. Have we had any successes, and substantially affected rural problems?

3. 3. Or, do we continue to propose the same solutions to the same problems?