DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT
The debate is about what development is, what causes it and the relationships between governments and peoples of rich and poor countries.
DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Western point of view from |Bendix, is that industrialization is economic change brought about by new technology utilized in a rational way. Modernization is social and political change.
Marxist view from change is that underdeveloped is different from undeveloped, non-developed, developing or not yet developed. Eg. rich countried have developed by under-developing (exploiting and making dependent) poor countries.
MODERNISATION THEORY AND DEVELOPMENT
Western countries are the most industrialised and modernised. So non-developed countries must acquire Western (capitalist) economic social institutions and values. So the spread of aid, trade, investment and western culture are all potentially beneficial.
W.W. Rostow
All countries develop in an evolutionary way through five stages of economic growth brought about by high investment, which accompanied by changed in social structures and values.
Parsons
Functionalist view places less emphasis on economics,and says that modern culture, i.e. nuclear families, rational thinking, indicidualism, emphasis on achievement and mass education, 'fits' industrialization
MARXIST AND DEPENDENCY THEORIES
Lenin talked about imperialism, and said that states exploit those around them, and workers in colonies are doubly exploited by rulers in their and their master's countries.
Neocolonialism continues the imperialist relationships with independent nations through economic and cultural domination.
Frank used Marxist-Leninist ideas to challenge the pro-western evolutionary optimism of Rostows modernization theory. He argued that neo-colonialism has replaced imperialism and rich countries depend on exploiting the poor work by multinational companies and global institutions. Exploitation occurs when profits from imperial trade is invested in rich nations, unequal trade (import cheap materials and reexport), the replacement of subsistence farming with single cash cope economies and the migration of skilled labour from satellite to metropolis.
EVALUATION
Criticisms of Modernization Theories
Dependency theories have challenged the main assumptions of modernization from a left-wing critical view of international capitalism.
Neo-liberal approach shares pro-capitalist and anti-communist views of modernization theory but supports the use of three free-market solutions:
Private investment over aid and loans.
International free trade.
Minimize state involvement in the economies of the Third World countries.
But free market solutions have led to increased debt and inequalities in the developing work. The success of the Asian Tigers and other NIC's may have involved state planning as well as successful exporting based on free trade.
Criticism of Dependency Theories
The collapse of communism and the success of some formerly undeveloped countries.
Most trade takes place between rich countries.
Rich countries wealth is based on capital, know-how and productivity, not international exploitation.
Non-colonised countries remain poor.
Relationships with other nations or transnational organizations can help or hinder development.
Dependency theories ignore internal obstacles to development.
There has been no single pattern of development. Today's rich countries were never underdeveloped like today's poor countries.