Theories of Development, Undevelopment & Global Inequality

• Modernisation Theory


  Theory that developing countries can become developed by following a 5-stage plan, with help from Western nations through international aid
• After the Second World War, some policy-makers in Western nations, such as the US, became very concerned that those countries that the poorest countries in the World might not see liberal capitalism as the route out of their poverty
• The concern was that the governments of countries newly liberated from their former imperial masters would look to the Soviet Union and communism as their path to development, inspired by the rapid industrialisation that took place there during Stalin's Five Year Plans
• This was seen as wrong, both for those countries (as they US policy-makers were strongly anti-Communist) but also wrong for the West, as they believed in developing the world capitalist system
• Modernisation theorists' ideas were rooted in functionalist sociological theory
• Walt Rostow


  Wrote "The Stages of Economic Growth", a "Non-Communist Manifesto" that presented developing countries with a 5-stage plan to become a developed nation
• Rostow's 5 Stages of Economic Growth


  1. Stage 1: Traditional Society

  2. Stage 2: Pre-conditions for take off

  3. Stage 3: Take off

  4. Stage 4: The drive to maturity

  5. Stage 5: The age of mass consumption
• Rostow argued that every country, no matter how poor, could become developed, like the US, if they followed this route
• Rostow used an aeroplane metaphor, of countries preparing to "take off"
• Rostow argued that the countries that were already developed had followed a similar path
• Modernisation theorists' view on why some countries have developed and others have not


  It relates to both resources and values - Western nations can help bring about the pre-conditions for take off through international aid, which can provide economic investment and promote value shifts
• Talcott Parsons' view


  Developing countries followed "old-fashioned" religions that promoted traditional rather than modern values, and there was a lack of entrepreneurial spirit - countries were poor because of their own failings and flaws, and they could succeed by importing modern, Western values
• Modernisation theorists are functionalists, and there is a clear link between the idea of modernisation and the familiar concept of a march of progress
• Elements of value shifts required for a country to move from traditional to modern society


  • Move towards nuclear families
  • Becoming more geographically mobile
  • Focusing on achieved status rather than ascribed status
• One of the main criticisms of modernisation theory is the charge that it is ethnocentric, with an assumption that "west is best" and all nations should aspire to be like the USA
• Another problem is that important elements of the development of industrialisation and capitalism in the West, such as empire and slavery, are glossed over or underplayed
• There is also a clear environmental limit to modernisation, as if every country entered "the age of mass consumption" the planet could not sustain that level of consumption
• A strength of modernisation theory is that it was developed by policymakers and has had a number of clear successes, with some countries developing strongly following a path similar to that laid out by Rostow
• Dependency Theory


  A Marxist explanation of underdevelopment, arguing that poor countries are poor because they have been deliberately and systematically undeveloped by the wealthy countries, leaving them in a state of dependency
• Andre Gunder Frank


  Key thinker associated with Dependency Theory, who argued that the modern world capitalist system was based on the system of colonialism and empire, and that poor countries remained dependent on their former colonial masters even after gaining political independence
• The great contrast between modernisation theory and dependency theory is where the blame for underdevelopment lies: modernisation theorists point to internal factors in the countries themselves, while dependency theorists point to external factors - the influence of the western powers
• Frank's proposed solutions for nations seeking to escape dependency


  Isolation - a country could try and isolate itself from the world capitalist system and develop in its own way<|>Breakaway - a colony could lose the shackles of its imperial master at a time when the latter is weak or distracted
• One of the key criticisms of dependency theory is that its proposed solutions are impractical and unappealing, offering the possibility of being like China or Cuba rather than the USA or UK
• Another criticism is that dependency theory oversimplifies the world, as there are former colonies that have prospered and developed, and inequality between developing countries
• Proposed solutions to underdevelopment are impractical and unappealing
• Modernisation theory


  Offers the possibility of being like the USA or the UK
• Dependency theorists


  Offer China or Cuba as models, both with high levels of poverty and a lack of democratic rights
• Many acknowledge the dependency theory's criticism of modernisation theory and see merit in its account for why countries are poor, but nevertheless reject its proposed solutions
• Dependency theory oversimplifies the world
• There are former colonies that have prospered and developed
• If the rich imperial powers are so dominant, why have they allowed some countries to develop?
• There is inequality between developing countries, with some much more developed than others
• Painting the West as the bourgeoisie and the developing world as the proletariat disguises the dominant role of local elites in developing countries and ignores the presence of poverty in the developed world
• Some critics point out the poverty in some communist countries and the way in which some developing countries became dependent on the Soviet Union in much the same "neo-colonial" relationship
• Dependency theory puts global inequality in a historical context and successfully undermines some key aspects of modernisation theory
• Dependency theory influenced the development of world systems theory
• World systems theory

  An adaptation of dependency theory, also seen as the first theory of globalisation
• Immanuel Wallerstein


  Key thinker associated with world systems theory, wrote The Modern World System in 1974
• Wallerstein was greatly influenced by Karl Marx's writing and by the dependency theory and the writings of Frank
• Wallerstein agreed with much of Frank's critique of modernisation theory and of global inequality, but saw a more complex and nuanced relationship between countries than the rather binary nature of the metropolis vs the satellites