Aqueous alkaline developing compositions useful in the development of negative-working lithographic printing plates are comprised of an organic solvent, an anionic surface active agent, an alkali metal tetraborate, an aliphatic monocarboxylic acid, an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid, a long chain aliphatic amine and sufficient alkaline buffering system to provide an alkaline pH. The developing composition is resistant to oxidation, highly effective in dissolution-type processing, able to effectively desensitize the background areas of the printing plate, and effective in enhancing the oleophilicity of the image areas of the printing plate.