Theories of Development: Modernisation and Neoliberalism

Question 1

What are the main aims of Modernisation theory?

Answer 1

• To assist with policies that would guide the newly independent ex-colonies towards development
• To provide a route to development that is an explicit alternative to communism

Question 2

What did Modernisation theorists’ aims result in?

Answer 2

The introduction of organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF that would provide aid for developing countries with conditions that they would change certain things that are more favourable for the West to aid their development.

Question 3

Which Modernisation theorist identified 5 stages of development?

Answer 3

Walton Rostow (1971)

Question 4

What are the 5 stages of development?

Answer 4

1) Traditional society
2) Pre-conditions for take off
3) Take off
4) Drive to maturity
5) Age of mass consumption

Question 5

Describe what happens in stage 1 of development.

Answer 5

1) Traditional society
- Basic technology (e.g. rakes for farming)
- Survival depends on agriculture
- Ascribed status

Question 6

Describe what happens in stage 2 of development.

Answer 6

2) Pre-conditions for take off
- Technological innovations (e.g. ploughs for farming) due to foreign aid
- Producing surpluses that are sold for profit

Question 7

Describe what happens in stage 3 of development.

Answer 7

3) Take off
- Progressed to industrialisation
- Entrepreneurs emerge

Question 8

Describe what happens in stage 4 of development.

Answer 8

4) Drive to maturity
- New infrastructure and institutions emerge to meet the new social needs of capitalism
- Foreign investment

Question 9

Describe what happens in stage 5 of development.

Answer 9

5) Age of mass consumption
- A demand for consumer goods which transcend basic needs
- Economic growth is maintained
- Wealth trickles down to the workers

Question 10

What are some examples of the internal and external factors of movement through the stages in development?

Answer 10

Internal - changes to infrastructure and social norms

External - aid from foreign countries to help fund/sustain the process

Question 11

How would a country changing its social norms and values aid their development?

Answer 11

Replacing tradition with the adoption of rational and scientific progress to encourage enterprise.

Question 12

What did Talcott Parsons argue about tradition in developing countries?

Answer 12

That developing countries’ societies are often unwilling to adjust to modern ideas and practises due to their desire to preserve custom.

Question 13

Identify 3 areas which may be necessary to change for development to occur.

Answer 13

1) Education
2) Mass Media
3) Urbanisation

Question 14

Describe how changing the education system of developing countries will accelerate their development.

Answer 14

Introducing a meritocratic education system will speed up the adoption of Western values of competition that are seen as essential to motivating workforces towards entrepreneurialism.

Question 15

Identify a sociologist and their views on changing the education system of developing countries.

Answer 15

Lerner (1958) argued that Western values could be more effectively transmitted to developing countries if the children of economic elites in these countries went to Western schools.

Question 16

Describe how expanding mass media to developing countries will accelerate their development.

Answer 16

Expanding the mass media to developing countries will diffuse new ideas and values into them as they become passive observers.

Question 17

Identify a sociologist and their views on introducing developing countries to mass media.

Answer 17

Inkeles (1969) argued that the mass media was crucial for development due to introducing secular values that democracy that are essential for modernity.

Question 18

Describe how encouraging urbanisation of developing countries will accelerate their development.

Answer 18

It would be easier to spread modern values amongst densely populated areas and cities host individualistic ideals as opposed to collectivist in rural areas to encourage entrepreneurialism.

Question 19

Identify a sociologist and their views on encouraging urbanisation of developing countries.

Answer 19

Cross (1979) argued that cities have a cultural effect on the rest of the society of that country and so Western values starting in cities would spread to everyone else in time.

Question 20

How would the focus on industrialisation and technology aid a country’ development?

Answer 20

• Increased use of mobile phones and social media opens them up to Western values
• TNCs introducing new technologies to countries encourages entrepreneurialism

Question 21

What is the ‘trickle down effect’?

Answer 21

The idea that wealth created by the capitalist class will flow vertically from the upper classes to the lower classes within a society, in which each social class is influenced by the higher class.

Question 22

How did Stiglitz criticise the trickle down effect?

Answer 22

• Evidence of upper classes having disproportionately more wealth than lower classes
• Increases inequality between upper and lower classes

Question 23

List 2 strengths of Modernisation theory and Neoliberalism.

Answer 23

1) Supporters of this theory argue Western invention has improved life expectancy and literacy rates for people in developing countries
2) NGOs like Oxfam aim to help the rural poor by training them to take control of their lives are still based on the notions of intervention in cultural practices showing that this theory has some credibility

Question 24

List 3 weaknesses of Modernisation theory and Neoliberalism.

Answer 24

1) Much of Western aid (e.g. IMF) is based on this theory which is ethnocentric towards the cultures of developing countries
2) A lot of wealth was built on the back of slavery and other global inequalities such as genocide and conquest
2) Developed countries still experience poverty, suicide, wealth inequalities, etc and so ignores the disillusion of ‘crisis of modernism’ that may cause a country to reject modernisation