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Introduction to Development Studies

THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBAR(SUZA)

DS 301 for diploma students third year.

Prepared by: Mr. Abdulrahman Mustafa Nahoda

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What is a Theory?• Definition 1: A specific claim or argument that

leads to empirical predictions• Example: Economic law of “supply and demand”

• Definition 2: General imageries about how the world works

• Example: Marxist theory: • Theory is useful because • it generates a rich description of the world• Offers directives to guide research• produces many specific claims to be tested

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DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

• Modernization• Dependencia• Neo Classical economic, Neo Liberalism• Alternative development• Human development• Anti development

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Modernisation Theory

• Has cultural, political and economic component• Different authors stress different aspects of the

argument• After WWII, the poverty and backwardness of

some of the world countries became extremely conspicuous

• The purpose of development economics has been mainly to study the phenomenon of underdevelopment, and to prescribe appropriate policies to eradicate it.

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Modernization

• Modernization is an encompassing process of massive social changes, that once set in motion tend to penetrate all domain of social life, from economic activities to social life, to political institutions, in a self reinforcing process.

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Modernization theory• Background:

• An evolutionary theory predicting how societies develop

– Argument: All societies naturally pass through certain stages of development• All societies start out as “traditional” hunter-gatherers• Then, they develop agriculture; towns & cities grow• Eventually, they become “modern” industrial societies

– Movement from one stage to the next is driven by things like population growth & new technologies• Society becomes more complex; greater division of labor.

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Modernization theory

• Modernization theory was based on analyses of European societies

• It was assumed that non-European societies would have the same experience

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Five stages:

• WALT WHITMAN ROSTOW(1916–2003)1) traditional society 2) preconditions for change 3) take-off 4) drive to maturity 5) mass consumption

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Traditional Societies

• Extended kinship• Little spatial and social mobility• Primary economic activities• Tendency towards autarchy of social units• Undifferentiated political structures with

traditional elites• Hierarchical source of authority

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Traditional Societies

• Traditional societies are marked by their pre-Newtonian understanding and use of technology. These are societies which have pre-scientific understandings of gadgets, and believe that gods or spirits facilitate the procurement of goods, rather than man and his own ingenuity. The norms of economic growth are completely absent from these societies.

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Preconditions for Take-off

• The preconditions to take-off are, to Rostow, that the society begins committing itself to secular education, that it enables a degree of capital mobilization, especially through the establishment of banks and currency, that an entrepreneurial class form, and that the secular concept of manufacturing develops, with only a few sectors developing at this point. This leads to a take off in ten to fifty years.

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The Take-off

• Take-off then occurs when sector led growth becomes common and society is driven more by economic processes than traditions. At this point, the norms of economic growth are well established.

• Transition from traditional to modern economy

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The Drive to Maturity

• The drive to maturity refers to the need for the economy itself to diversify. The sectors of the economy which lead initially begin to level off, while other sectors begin to take off. This diversity leads to greatly reduced rates of poverty and rising standards of living, as the society no longer needs to sacrifice its comfort in order to strengthen certain sectors.

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Age of High Mass Consumption

• The age of high mass consumption refers to the period of contemporary comfort afforded many western nations, wherein consumers concentrate on durable goods, and hardly remember the subsistence concerns of previous stages.

• in the age of high mass consumption, a society is able to choose between concentrating on military and security issues, on equality and welfare issues, or on developing great luxuries for its upper class.

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Policy Prescriptions of Modernization Theory

• Urbanization• Education• Socialization• Industrialization• Free trade and openness • Property rights and law• Deregulation• Privatization• Democratization

• Key component was to change culture and attitudes of individuals living in traditional societies so that they are open to modernization and development, rationality and reason

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Major critics

• modernization theory is criticized as biased and ethnocentric, that is, the development categories, stages, and processes involved are all derived from the Western experience rather than from the developing countries. There are other paths available to the Third World countries, and these alternatives neither have to use democratic institutions nor do LDCs need to reach a Western level of development to be considered successful.

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Major critics

• The alleged ‘backwardness’ of ‘underdeveloped’ countries, regions and peoples, was itself a product of the development of the core, developed areas.

• Development and underdevelopment could not be considered in isolation, and nor could it be assumed that contact with ‘the West’ was a benign process; indeed, the development of ‘the West’ rested on the underdevelopment of ‘the Rest’.

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Major critics

• modernization theory misinterprets the role of traditional values and institutions in the economic development, social coherence, and political stability. It was often possible for a Third World country to retain their own traditional cultural attributes along with a modern economy;

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Major Critics

• some radical critics even charge that modernization theory is a political ideology that is tended to promote the Western values and used to justify Western dominance and to keep the Third World in control or “in chains” by which they could resist communist appeals.

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Major Critics

• You cannot simply ignore the structures of the global economy

• The economic solutions it proposes will exasperate poverty in the medium term

• Political solutions questionable?• Does not properly delineate between different

societies• All cultural explanations of growth pose problem of

hitting the target (Catholicism, Confucianism etc )

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References:

• Clark, D.A (2006)The Elga Companion to Development studies. Elga: USA

• Scott, John. (2006) Sociology key concept. Routledge. London

• Ritze, George. (2007) The Black well encyclopaedia of sociology. Blackwell. USA

• Rapley, John. (2002) Understaning development, theory and practice in the third world. Lynne Rienner. London

• Simon, David. (2006) Fifty Key Thinkers in Development. Routledge. London