Modernisation Thesis Flashcards
Who are the key theorists in the modernisation thesis?
Rostow and Lewis
What generally is the modernisation thesis?
A universal blueprint.
Industrialisation and economic growth = development
Modernisation thesis became the backbone of what we understood to be ‘development’
This discourse reflected the power relations in the world and left little space for cultural specificity or choice
What does this claim development is?
Development = civilised society and modernity
What are you if not civilised?
Backwards or underdeveloped
What does this assume?
Path of powerful as the only “good” or “progressive” path
How is development through modernisation possible?
Justice systems to all be like Western
belief in mass systems of education through schools and national approaches to education
belief in mass systems of health care through formal relationships between patients and doctors in clinical settings
Where did this idea come from?
Cold War and geo-political context
What are the criticisms of the modernisation thesis?
Implies that other states simply need to follow the same stages Western states did
this is problematic because western states have been developing for years already and theyre,,the ones who,, underdeveloped the rest,,
implies that if an underdeveloped state “fails” its because they didnt follow the stages properly
Challenges to modernisation as a progressive form of development came from a wide variety of sources
Failure to achieve poverty reduction effectively
Did not accurately reflect the path taken by Western states
Fundamental concern that the claims set up ‘developing’ states to fail
More recently, could add that levels of ecological damage caused by ‘industrialisation’
What is the problem with the West in this theory?
Western states did not ‘develop’ under the same conditions
They did not start as colonised areas
They were not resource suppliers prior to any development at all They were (for the most part) nation-states which held internal legitimacy for their citizens
Labour conditions improved at the same rate as economic growth given that the two were dependent on each other
What are the failures of development?
Economic growth was in general not being achieved by development policies
Where it was being achieved it was not being well distributed
Therefore no little reduction of poverty in terms of an increase in standards of living for the majority
