Week 3 Development theories Flashcards
Context
3 main historical elements advanced the inception of the modernisation theory after WW2
- The rise of the USA as a superpower after WW2
- The spread of a United World Communist Movement
- The disintegration of European colonial empires in Asia, Africa and Latin America giving birth to many new nation-states in the Third World
Coleman stresses three main features (political) of modern socities:
- Differentiation of political structure
- Secularisation of political culture- with the ethos of equality
- Enhances the capacity of a society’s political system
Central Argument: Modernisation as development theory
Modernisation as development theory
The major assumptions are:
- homogenising process, in this sense, we can say that modernisation produces tendencies toward convergence among societies
- is a Europeanisation or Americanisation process, in the modernisation literature, there is an attitude of complacency toward Western Europe and the United States
- is an irreversible process, once started modernisation cant be stopped
SF Parsonian:
- is a systematic process
- is a transformative process
- is a imminent process
The western capitalist dream for development in the third world
- Development as modernisation emphasises the process of social change which is required
- to produce economic advancement
- examines changes in social, psychological and political processes
- how to develop wealth-orientated behaviour and values in individuals
- profit-seeking rather than subsistence and self-sufficiency
- shift from commodity to human approach with investment in education and skill training - Progress is seen as universal and inevitable and driven by a particular logic that directed European development:
- Requirement of modern values (achievement, universalism, self-orientation, specificity and effective neutrality) (Parsons)
- need for specialisation and differentialisation of tasks (Durkheim)
- Rationality that overcomes superstition and fatalism of traditional society
- Rational bureaucracies that realise greater efficiency (Weber)
Rostowian model
Phase 1: Traditional societies
- Existing social structures, values and norms are unable to cope with a changing society (population growth, free market economy, etc.)
Characterised by:
- subsistence economy- output not traded or recorded (consumed)
- existence of barter
- high levels of agriculture and labour intensive agriculture
86% of resident workforce in Lesotho is engaged in subsistence agriculture
Phase 2: Preconditions for take-off
- Tradition and other ‘stumbling bocks’ towards westernisation are finally overcome (rationalisation of society)
- Political support that sets economic development as a high priority
- Modern values invade the underdeveloped society towards a process of westernisation and acculturation
- An emergence of transport and infrastructure to support trade
- Some growth in savings and investment
The use of some capital equipment can help increase productivity and generate small surpluses which can be traded
Phase 3: Take-off
- Rapid economic growth and diffusion of Western technology to various sectors of the economy
- Technological and entrepreneurial skills are required to increase GDP
- Increasing industrialisation
- Further growth in savings and investment
- Workers switched from the agricultural sector to the manufacturing sector
At this stage, industrial growth may be linked to primary industries. The level of technology required will be low
Phase 4: Drive to maturity
- Growth becomes self-sustaining — wealth generation enables further investment in value-adding industry and devlopment
- Economy begins to diversify into new areas
- Increase in levels of technology utilised
As the economy matures, technology plays an increasing role in developing high-value-added products
Phase 5: High mass consumption
- When formally poor countries can copy the lifestyles and consumtion patterns of the industraialsed countries
- High output levels
- Mass consumption of consumer durables
- High proportion of employment in the service sector
The service industry dominates the economy- banking, insurance, finance, marketing, entertainment, leisure and so on
Critique/policy implications
- Assumes that all socities evolve from a common starting point (undeveloped) and transform along a reductionist continuum of economic and social chnage from a traditional to modern
- Western norms, values and lifestyle are never questioned- need to eliminate traditional values
- Assumes acceptance of external intervention without questioning the motives of the outsiders in any way
- Progress is mainly economic growth
- Developmentis often seen as unidirectional
- Western materialism and individualism are seen as important goals - the potencial of other knowledge systems is disregarded
WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY
Steward & Zaaiman pp100)
Context
* Emerged in the 1970s & coined by Immanuel Wallerstein
* Criticized dependency theory as limited to explaining new developments in the capitalist world economy:
* Rise of the 4 Asian Tigers - East Asian states experienced remarkable economic growth
* strong competition for the USA
* Gradual incorporation of the socialist states in the capitalist world system… decline of the Marxist revolution?
* Crisis in USA capitalism: leading for long time and now have increase in countries like Japan
Main argument
Proposes that core (1” world countries) actively underdevelop peripheral or 3rd World countries, but (unlike DT) proposes that the relationship between core and periphery is mediated by a third group, i.e. semi-peripheral countries.
3 way division of world
Core - Semi-periphery - periphery
The principal differences between the WST and the DT are:
a) The unit of analysis in the DT is the nation-state, for the world system it is the world itself;
b) The theoretical structure for the DT is bimodal, consisting of the core and the periphery; according to the WST the structure is trimodal and is comprised of the core, the semi-periphery and the periphery;
c) In terms of the direction of development, the DT believes that the process is generally harmful; however, in a WS scenario, there is the possibility for upward and downward mobility in the world economy;
d) The research focus of dependency theorists concentrates on the periphery: while WS theorists focus on the periphery as well as on the core, the semi periphery and the periphery.
WS economy consists of a 3-level hierarchy derived from the inter-regional and transnational division of labour, i.e.:
* Core countries (extraction of surplus, control of world trade, monopolies)
* Semi-periphery countries (in-between’ tampon zone; semi-industrialised states)
* Periphery countries (they provide primary products / weak state mechanism)
We can only understand a country’s economic system if we understand its place in the world system
Core countries pp102
Examples: USA, Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia -
* Historically developed first in Westem Europe in the 16th century
* Strong state mechanisms, are technologically advanced, skilled labour force
* Dominant capitalist countries that exploit peripheral countries for labour and raw materials
* Strong military power and does not depend on any one state or country
* Serve the interest of the economically powerful
* Focused on higher skill and capital-intensive production
* Have a dominant economic relationship with the semi-periphery and periphery
Semi-periphery pp102
South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, RSA
* Are major exporters of minerals and agricultural goods and often focused on the manufacturing and exportation of industrial goods and commodities.
* Trade with both core & periphery countries.
* More diversified than periphery countries, but less than core countries.
* The state is more likely to interfere in its International and national markets
* Not powerful enough to dictate economic and political policy but are sources of raw materials and an expanding middle-class marketplace
* Exploits peripheral nations and in turn exploited by core nations.
Peripheral countries pp101
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Lesotho
* Are the least economically diversified
* Lack a strong central government or were controlled by other states,
* Have relatively weak institutions, with tax bases too small to support infrastructural development
* The core expropriated much of the capital surplus generated by the periphery through unequal trade relations.
* Tend to depend on one type of economic activity, often by extracting and exporting raw materials to core states
* Tend to be the least industrialized
* Have a small bourgeois and a large peasant classes
* Tend to have high percentages of poor and uneducated people
WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY IN SUMMARY pp101
* Since its inception, the capitalist world economy has had this feature of 3 level/structural locations - all try to improve their position in the hierarchy.
* The different locations depend on economic exchange with each other for the smooth functioning of the whole, and there is no need for the parts to have a common political structure or similar culture.
* The development of ‘strong’ state mechanisms which first emerged in
Western Europe is partly why Western Europe became a core area.
* By contrast the periphery is characterized by weak state mechanisms.
GLOBALISATION THEORY
- what is industrialism
- what is capatilism
- example
- internet facebook, X, Whatsapp
(Stew./Zaai..pp103)
* Industrial capitalism is a key force behind the growing interconnectedness of different parts of the globe incorporating economic activities in different parts of the world
Globalisation theories offer explanations of social change and development in an interconnected world at the beginning of the 20 century.
* Illustrate how processes associated with social change in immediate / local environment are somehow connected to distant events and processes.
* Anthony Giddens
* the focus is not just on how the economy changed but on the
transformation of time & space where ‘action at a distance” is possible.
* Thanks to ICT - ‘global village’ - has overcome space through the mastery of time
* organized social and community relations are possible regardless of the distance between locations
Ankie Hoogland doubts whether there is such thing as globalisation - industrial capitalism is undergoing a re-organisation that questions certain arguments about global interdependence
* Her concept of implosion is based on the examination of statistical data which revealed changes in world trade, FDI, growth in TNCs and world capital flows since the 1970s.
* BUT there is NO evidence of;
* An Increasing interconnectedness sald to characterise the world economy
* The deepening and widening penetration by the core of the periphery.
RATHER there is evidence of; (pp103)
* A thickening network of economic exchange within the core
* A significant redistribution of trade participation within the core [intensification]
Graduation of a small number of peripheral nations [with small population bases] to core status
But above all a declining economic interaction between core and periphery.
* Periphery is becoming less significant to capitalism [exclusion)
L9: What is sustainability
Context pp 76
- concept of sustainability emerged in the 1970s
- “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” pp77-78
- (Gro Harlem) Bruntland Commission Report in 1987
Outcomes
- understand how countries develop- 4 major theories of development
- analyze the similarities and differences between the devlopment theories
- evaluate their strenghts and weaknesses
- apply these theories to real world examples of development efforts in diff parts of the world
Sustainable development
Intellectual movement
- sustainable development was first used in 1972 by Donella Meadows and other authors of The Limit to the Growth
- there has been an uneasy balance between the human and non-human worlds, and modern development practices are leading to worldwide environmental and social crises
- the desire to help identify a set of principles that could guide human action toward a more sustainable path regardless of the starting point
- develop a comprehensive definition of an environmentally sustainable society that is easily understood and grounded in natural science, social science an systems theory
Advocates of SD- 5 different perspectives
Environmentalists: tend to be motivated by the threat of ecological criis
Economists: use the language and tools of economists, they try to bring the environmental and social issues into an economic framework of analysis
Equity advocates: focus on equality, exploitation, consumption and developed detailed analyses oh how concentration of political and economic power leads to exploitation
Spiritual and ethical writers dwell on the need for a transformation of values and mindsets as a precondition to sustainable development
Ecofeminist critiques of devlopment follow a similar path, arguing that specifically male values, mindsets and institutes are much of the problem
Defined as devlopment that is likely to achieve lasting satisfaction of human and improvment of the quality of life and encompasses:
- Help the very poorest who are left with no option but to destroy their environment to survive
- Idea of self-reliant deelopment with natural resource constraints
- Cos-effective development using different economic criteria to the traditional - i.e. devlopment should not degrade the environment
- important issues of health control, appropriate technologies, food self-reliance, clean water and shelter for all
- People centred activities are necesarry- human beings are the resources in concept
Sustainable Human Development
- Mahbul Ul Haq- “Environmental debate must be given a human perspective to save it from the extremes of environmental fanatics, who often seem more interested in saving trees than in saving people” pp76
- Shifted development discourse from economic development to people and their well being (HDI)
- Pre-conditions for a viable strategy of sustainable development include:
1. A major restructuring of the world’s income and consumption patterns- especially the current lifestyles of the rich nations
2. Protection of vulnerable people and nations
3. Free resources for devlopment spending
4. Transparent and ethical governance
5. Compassionate society
Assumptions of sustainable human development
Each generation must meet its needs without icurring debts it cannot repay pp 78
- environmental debts (pollution, exhausting resources)
- Financial debts (unsustainable borrowing)
- Social debt (negelct to invest in human development)
- Demographic debt (permitting unchecked population growth and urbanisation)
Sustainable HUman Development does not underplay growth but rather acknowledges that growth is important but under SD it is approached differently
