Theories of Development Flashcards
1
Q
Modernisation Theory
A
- Aimed to provide a specifically non-communist solution to poverty in the developing
↳ it’s aim was to spread a specifically industrialised, capitalist model of development through the promotion of Western, democratic values - Explained the underdevelopment of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America primarily in terms of ’cultural barriers of development’: traditional values held them back
- Also identified economic barriers to development: to develop, less developed countries needed to adopt a similar path to development to the West - they needed to adopt Western cultural values and industrialise in order to promote economic growth & they need help (aid & investment) from Western government and companies
- Obstacles to development are internal: they have the wrong cultural and social systems and the wrong values and practices that prevent development from taking place
- General consensus that aid was a good thing: if developing countries were injected with money and western expertise it would help to eros a ‘backward’ cultural barriers and kickstart their economies
- Favoured a capitalist-industrial model of development: they believed that capitalism encourage efficient production through industrialisation
- Lie in Functionalist ideas: felt it was essential for societies to go through evolutionary stages to achieve a modern standard of living through adopting a similar growth path.
2
Q
Modernisation Theory - Parsons
A
- Believed that underdeveloped countries are too attached to traditional customs, rituals, practices and institutions which he argued were the ’enemy of progress’
- Especially critical of the extended kinship and tribal systems found in many traditional societies, which he believed hindered geographical and social mobility that were essential for development
Barriers to Development - Traditional Values
- Particularlism: where people are allocated into roles based on their affective or familial relationship to those already in positions of power rather than due to their ability or achievement
- Collectivism: where the individual is expected to put the group before self-interest (eg the children are expected to leave school at a earlier age to care for grandparents rather than furthering their education)
- Patriarchy: cultural structures are embedded in practices that mean women are much less likely to gain positions of political or economic power and remain in traditional, housewife roles meaning half the population is blocked from contributing to the political and economic development of the country
- Ascribed Status: when your position in society is ascribed at birth based on your caste, ethnic group or gender
- Fatalism: feeling like there is nothing you can do to change your situation resulting in passive acceptance of their situation
- People in undeveloped countries needed to develop an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ if economic growth was to be achieved but this could only happen if less develop countries became more receptive to Western values, which promoted economic growth
Western cultural values which promote economic growth
- Universalism: the best jobs are open to anyone (promotes competition)
- Individualism: frees individuals up to leave families/villages and use their talents to better themselves (get an education/set up businesses)
- Achieved status and Meritocracy: gaining one’s position in society based on merit (ability and effort = outcome meaning they get the position they deserve)
3
Q
Modernisation Theory - Rostow
A
- Following initial investment, countries would then set off an evolutionary process in which they would progress up 5 stages of the development ladder (which should take 60 years)
Rostow’s 5 stages
1) Traditional Societies: village based and practice subsistence farming
↳ traditional values prevent social change - particularism, patriarchy, collectivism etc
↳ need the Wests help to develop
2) Preconditions for take off: !! Western governments and businesses provide aid to help developing countries industrialise
↳ means: new technologies to modernise agriculture, building factories/electricity plants (dams), improvements in infrastructure such as roads and bridges
↳ provide the fuel for ‘take off’
3) Take off stage: Local people take advantage of opportunities opened by Western investment
↳ a new middle class emerges which is willing to take risks and begin investing in business and so production increases, leading to more exports
↳ wealth trickles down to the mass population
4) The drive to maturity: More trade means more money from taxes and the government can now afford to invest in education and healthcare leading to a rise in living standards
5) The age of high mass consumption: After 60 years, developing countries reach a similar level of development to the west
4
Q
Strengths of Modernisation Theory
A
- Encouraged the establishment of the United Nations and many other international agencies of development (World Bank and IMF) which countries continue to channel aid money to less developed countries
- Most influential impact on global affairs
- Aid programmes have had some success in progressing developing economies
- Huntington: affirms the importance of culture as the primary variable for development
- Neo-modernisation theorists: progressing developing societies need to develop a ‘modern’ imagination in both thinking and practice
- Hoselitz: education was the key to establishing meritocratic systems & transmitting effective values to developing countries and producing a more efficient, mobile and effective workforce
-
Sachs: sees development as a ladder and argues there are a billion people in the world that are too malnourished, diseased or young to lift a foot onto the ladder because they lack certain types of capital which the west takes for granted (eg good health)
↳ they are trapped in a cycle of deprivation and require targeted aid injections form the west in order to develop
5
Q
Criticisms of Modernisation Theory
A
- There are no examples of countries that have followed a Modernisation Theory approach to development
- It’s a very old theory which was partly created with the intention of justifying the position of Western capitalist countries, many of whom were colonial powers at the time and discrediting Communism
- Ethnocentric: assumes that Western civilisation is technically and morally superior to traditional societies & implies that traditional values in the developing world have little value compared to those of the West
- Many developed countries have huge inequalities and the greater the level of inequality the greater the degree of other problems (high crime rates, suicide rates, poor health problems such as cancer and drug abuse)
- Industrialisation may do more harm than good for many people and it may cause social damage
↳ some development projects such as dams have led to local populations being removed forcible from their home lands with little or no compensation being paid
↳ Ecological limits to growth: many industrial modernisation projects such as mining and forestry have led to the distraction of the environment -
Dependency Theorists: modernisation theory isn’t really about helping the developing world at all
↳ it’s about changing societies so they are easier to exploit, making Western countries/companies richer, opening them up to exploit cheap natural resources and cheap labour -
Neo-Liberalism: corruption often prevents aid from getting to where it’s supposed to be going
↳ much air is siphoned off by corrupt elites and government officials rather than getting to the projects meaning aid creates more inequality and enables to maintain power -
Post-Development Thinkers: the model is flawed for assuming that countries need the help of outside forces and this approach can be seen as demeaning and dehumanising for local populations
↳ Galeano: there are alternative models of development which have raised living standards such as Communist Cuba and The Theocracies of the Middle East
6
Q
Dependency Theory
A
- Poor countries because of a history of exploitation by richer, Western countries as evidenced in the long history of European colonialism and empire
- Poor countries need to break away from the global capitalist system in order to develop
- Sees the obstacles to development as being imposed from the outside rather than being internal to developing countries
- Developing countries fail to develop because they are kept in a state of dependency by the West
- Underdevelopment is because the development of the West has come about through exploiting labour and resources in the developing world and the solution to this is for developing countries to break free from Western control
- Developed countries of the west built their wealth over many centuries by exploiting poorer underdeveloped countries and they do their best today to keep them in a state of dependency
↳ it is not in their interests to let them develop - Marxist approach: capital was accumulated via slavery and colonialism and the transition to capitalism was facilitated by the exploitation of the developing world
↳ developed the theory of Imperialism
Origins of Dependency
- See history essential to understanding the situation that we are in today and this history is one of profoundly unequal power relations
- Unequal relationship between the developed west and the underdeveloped South is seen as having its origins in Slavery and then Colonialism
-
Slavery: helped kickstart Britain’s economic growth in the 18th and 19th centuries
↳ Between 1600 and 1850 approx 9 million Africans were shipped from West Africa to the Americas
↳ Britain and British merchants at this time were at the centre of the slave triangle
↳ People become property, providing a free labour source and source of profit for those trading in them -
Colonialism: Locked much of Africa, Asia and Latin America into exploitative relationships with Western European Nation from about 1650 and 1900
↳ Superior naval and military resources allowed these nations to colonise most of the rest of the world
↳ Frank: characterised the colonising European countries as the Core Nations (Metropolis) who effectively benefited from their colonies or satellite nations
7
Q
Colonialism
A
- Colonialism: Locked much of Africa, Asia and Latin America into exploitative relationships with Western European Nation from about 1650 and 1900
- Benefitted the Western colonisers and left developing nations struggling to develop following their eventual independence
How colonialism created dependency
- Colonies were exploited for their cheap food, labour and raw materials and the most fertile land was appropriated for growing profitable cash crops (eg tea)
- New markets were created for the manufactured goods by the West
- Local industries that attempted to compete with the West were destroyed or undermined by cheaper textiles from the west
- Divisions and conflicts between ethnic groups were created or enforced as those tribes loyal to the colonising powers were given economic and political power rewards- Arbitrary boarders were imposed especially in Africa which form the basis of ethnic conflicts even today
The End of Colonialism and the Emergence of Neo-Colonialism
- Following WW2, the 1950s, 60s and 70s saw most ex-colonies in Africa, Asia and Latin America gain political independence
-
Frank: their exploitation continued via neo-colonialism; the economies of developing countries are dependent for their export earnings on a small number of primary goods (eg Coffee/Tea)
↳ Following independence many ex-colonies gained more than half of their income from just one export which kept countries poor because the country’s economy is very vulnerable and raw materials have little value
↳ Vulnerable economy: prices or commodities fluctuate with demand and so the amount of money farmers receives also fluctuates
↳ overproduction means the price goes down so farmers receive less income
↳ Raw materials having little value: processing of the raw materials adds value and this takes place in the West
Impact of Colonisation & Neo-Colonialism
- 24,000 people die everyday from hunger
- The gap between the richest and poorest is 74 to 1 (1997) compared to 3 to 1 (1820)
- Colonialism left a legacy of violence and fuelled ethnic conflict
↳ before colonialism started, there were a number of well-functioning political and economic systems around the globe, most of them based on small-scale subsistence farming but 400 years of colonialism brought that to an end
8
Q
Solutions to Dependency
A
- The only way out of dependency is for an undeveloped nation to escape from the global capitalist system and exploitative relationships with richer countries
- Countries need to find alternative pathways to development to protect their fragile economies
- Isolation: eg China from about 1960 to 2000 which is now successfully emerging as a global economic superpower having isolated itself from the West for the past 4 decades
- Socialist Revolution: eg Cuba which resulted in sanctions being applied by America which limited trade with the country, holding its development back
-
Associate or dependent development: be part of the global capitalist system but adopt national economic policies to bring about economic growth
↳ eg Import substitution industrialisation: industrialisation produces consumer goods that would normally be imported from abroad (successfully adopted by many South American countries like Brazil)
9
Q
Criticisms of Dependency Theory
A
- Goldthorpe - Some countries appear to have benefitted from Colonialism: countries that had been colonised have the benefits of good transport and communication networks such as India whereas many countries that were never colonised such as Ethiopia are much less developed
-
Modernisation theorists: point out the well-known failings of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe
↳ many developing countries have benefitted from Aid-for-Development programmes run by Western governments
↳ countries which have adopted capitalist models of development since WW2 have developed at a faster rate than those that pursued communism -
Neoliberalists: it is mainly internal factors that lead to underdevelopment
↳ it is corruption within governments that is mainly to blame for the lack of development in many African countries and so what Africa needs is less isolation and more capitalism -
Paul Collier - Bottom Billion: causes of underdevelopment cannot be reduced to a history of exploitation
↳ factors such as civil wars, ethnic tensions and being landlocked with poor neighbours are correlated with underdevelopment
10
Q
Wallerstein: World Systems Theory
A
- The world capitalist system is characterised by an international division of labour consisting of a structured set of relations between 3 types of capitalist zone
- The core or developed countries: control world trade and exploit the rest of the world
-
The semi-peripheral zone: the core contracts work out to these countries - these are the regions which manufacture goods and increasingly provide cheap services to the West
↳ includes countries like China or Brazil -
Peripheral countries: at the bottom, mainly in Africa which provide the raw materials such as cash crops to the core and semi periphery
↳ these are also the emerging markets in which the core attempts to market their manufactured goods - Countries can be upwardly or downward mobile in the world system
↳ Many countries, such as the BRIC Nations have moved up from being peripheral countries to semi-peripheral countries and some (eg South Korea) can now be regarded as core countries - Exploitation and inequality remain a fundamental part of this global capitalist system as the development of the West in terms of cheap, consumer goods depends on the poverty and relative poverty of the semi-periphery
- Most countries do not move up and stay peripheral and the ex-colonial powers are very unlikely to slip down the global order because the core countries are constantly evolving new ways of extracting profit from poorer countries and regions
11
Q
Evaluations of World Systems Theory
A
- Puts too much emphasis of economics and the dominance of capitalism: there are other ways people can be exploited and oppressed such as tyrannical religious regimes
↳ there are some areas that are still not included in the world system - some tribal peoples in South America and Bhutan remain relatively unaffected by global capitalism - There are more cause of underdevelopment than just capitalism such as cultural factors, corruption and ethnic conflict
- Wallerstein’s: concepts of Core, Semi-Periphery and Periphery are vague and this means his theory is difficult to test in practice
12
Q
Neoliberalism
A
- Making trade between nations easier will promote development
- Argue for the freer movement of goods, resources and enterprises in a bid to always find cheaper resources, to maximise profits and efficiency
- Requires the removal of various controls deemed as barriers to free trade such as: tariffs, certain standards, laws, legislation and regulatory measures and restrictions on capital flows and investment
- The goal is to be able to allow the free market to naturally balance itself
- Has been the official framework for development since 1989
- Governments prevent development by restricting the freedom of businesses to get on with making a profit
- Critical of the role of Western aid money and point to the many corrupt Africa dictatorships which emerged in the 1960s-1980s
↳ these were often propped up by aid money from Western governments and during this period billions of dollars were siphoned off into the pockets of government officials in those countries and not used for development at all
13
Q
Neoliberalism - How can countries develop?
A
- Insists that governments in developing countries need to remove obstacles to free trade and free market capitalism in order to generate development
- Governments should limit their role and provide a business-friendly environment that enables businesses to make a profit
- If governments allow businesses the freedom to ‘do business’, wealth will be he generated which will trickle down to everyone
- Friedman - Golden Straight Jacket: a set of neoliberal economic principles that countries need to fit into achieve success in the global economy
Specific Policies preferred by Neoliberals:
-
Deregulation: removing restrictions on businesses and employers involved in world trade
↳ reducing tax on corporate profits or reducing the amount of ‘red tape’ or formal rules by which companies have to abide (eg reducing health and safety regulations) - Fewer protections for workers and the environment: eg doing things like scrapping minimum wages and permanent contracts and means allowig companies the freedom to increasingly hire ‘flexible workers’ on short-term contracts
- Privatisation: selling to private companies industries that had been owned and run by the state
- Cutting Taxes: if the government cuts taxes then the state plays less of a role in the economy relative to the size of the private sector in the economy
- Some countries willingly adopted these policies believing they would work but others had them imposed on them as part of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) created by the IMF
↳ involves the World Bank or IMF agreeing a loan for a developing country as long as the country fulfils certain conditions (eg deregulation and privatisation)
14
Q
Criticisms of Neo-Liberalism
A
- Those countries that have adopted free market policies have developed more slowly than those countries that protected their economies
↳ the BRIC nations suggest that the best way to develop is for a country to protect its economy for many decades and then open up to free market capitalism - Blames underdevelopment on corrupt governments in poor countries, but there are many examples of TNC’s (Shell in Nigeria) who signify the free market principles that arguably hinder development and work with corrupt governments to bring them in money that keeps them in power
-
Dependency theorists: neo-liberalism is merely an ‘ideology’
↳ it is really about opening up countries so they are more easily exploitable by TNCs - TNCs do not tend to invest in the poorest countries only in LDCs and NICs
↳ Sachs: many of the poorest require aid money
15
Q
Post-Development Perspective
A
- Critical of Western models of development, arguing that development models are unjust
- Modernist explanations of underdevelopment have rarely sought contributions from sociologists and economists who actually live in the developing world
- Development is a hoax in that it was never really designed to deal with humanitarian problems rather it was helping the industrial world, especially the US to maintain its economic and cultural dominance of the world
- Argue we need alternative models of development and focus more on measures of social development and prioritise sustainable development models
- Focus more on measures of Social Development and prioritise sustainable development models
Escobar
- Criticised modernisation theory for being ethnocentric
↳ it was only every interested in making poor countries like rich countries and was dismissive of many ancient philosophies and traditions which had worked in poorer countries for thousands of years
↳ this is both arrogant and disrespectful and created the potential for opposition and conflict - Modernisation theory was a top-down approach which treated people and cultures as abstract concepts and statistical figures
↳ it effectively denied people within developing countries the opportunity to make their own choices and decisions
Sahlins
- Western aid agencies often incorrectly assume that people who lack material possessions are in poverty and are unhappy but they may actually be happy because they belong to a supportive community and they have the love of their family
↳ eg Bhutan - development is measured in terms of Gross National Happiness, rather than Gross National Product
McKay
- Development strategies are too often in the hands of Western experts who fail to take account of local knowledge or skills
- Development often has little to do with the desires of the target population
- Western models of development have created a diverse set of problems
↳ indigenous people have been forcibly removed from their homelands, grave environmental damage is being done to rainforests, children’s labour is being exploited and aggressive marketing of unhealthy products is taking place all over the developing for economic growth and progress
