The Political Economy of Global Development: Modernization Theory

• Can developing societies follow a similar path of development to that of ‘western societies’, as Modernization Theory suggests?
• Even if they can, should they?

-         Core assumption of MT is that the obstacles to industrialization are internal to society. (Tradition is the ultimate obstacle, need adoption of Western values (n factor) and lifestyle).

-         MT does not include colonialism – which is how the West developed – on the basis of exploitation of their colonies. Developing countries cannot follow that path of development.

Desai & Potter (1.8):

-         Economic growth is not the same as development, development encompasses social welfare factors and living standards. Growth is necessary for development to occur.

-         Goulet – three components to development; life sustenance, self-esteem and freedom.

-         Sen – development should focus on and be judged by the expansion of people’s entitlements, and the capabilities these entitlements generate.

-         HDI (1990) based on life expectancy at birth, educational attainment (combining adult literacy & primary, secondary & tertiary school enrolment rates, standard of living (measured by real per capita income measured at PPP).

-         Political commitment, not financial resources, is the real obstacle to poverty eradication.

Desai & Potter (1.9):

-         MT focused on economic growth/industrialization as the main factor of development. However, it was seen that economic growth that actually took place in most developing countries seemed to go together with increases in absolute and relative poverty.

-         Basic Needs Approach (BNA – mid 1970s) was developed, where development was redefined as a broad-based, people-orientated process; a critique of modernization.

-         1986 – UN adopted the UN Declaration on the Right to Development, where development itself was identified as an inalienable human right.

-         1995 – GDI and GEM introduced – recognizing gender equality as part of development.

-         Poverty is now understood as a human rights violation.

Desai & Potter (2.1):

-         Hettne suggests that development thinking involves three things; development theories, development strategies & development ideologies.

-         Thomas Kuhn (structure of scientific revolutions) argues academic disciplines are dominated at particular points in time by communities of researchers & their associated methods, thereby defining the subjects & the issues deemed to be of importance within them.

-         Field of development theory is characterized by evolutionary, rather than revolutionary change.

-         Framework for development thinking suggested by Potter & Lloyd-Evans (p. 69).

-         Hettne – “theorizing about development is therefore a never-ending task”.

Desai & Potter (2.4):

-         Marshall Plan (1947) generated much confidence in the role of overseas economic aid.

-         20^th January 1949, US President Truman’s ‘Point Four’ speech of his Inaugural Address encouraged industrialization and technology to be used towards developing countries.

-         Adam Smith – neoclassical paradigm saw manufacturing as capable of achieving greater increases in productivity than agriculture. Emphasized the expansion of markets as an inducement for greater productivity – leading to greater labour specialization and productivity.

-         Theme emerged in post-war period – underdeveloped countries characterized by a ‘dualistic’ nature, where advanced & modern sectors of the economy coexisted alongside traditional & backward sectors. E.g. Arthur Lewis.

-         Hirschman & Myrdal – strategies on ‘unbalanced growth’ – development of one or more regional centres of economic strength is essential for an economy to lift itself to higher income levels. Myrdal’s spread and backwash effects.

-         Hirschman suggests govts shouldn’t necessarily intervene to reduce inequalities, due to this spin-off effect.

-         Unilinear models – like Rostows (which is a growth rather than development model) – strongly Eurocentric (assuming all countries will imitate Europe and America), firmly based on Euro-American experience. It implies things get better over time, which for the Third World, has not been true.

‘Third World Modernization in Transnational Perspective’, Terence K. Hopkins:

-         Modernization of TW is unlikely within the context of the Western-centred or capitalist portion of the international political economy.

-         Theories of modernization obscure key problems of TW development.

-         Modernization is inextricably bound up with the history of the nation-state system.

-         There is indeed a pattern to industrialization in capitalist societies – but this cannot be applied to TW – different history and political context.

-         To some, modernization is Westernization.

-         Secular inflation – minimum scale for a relatively independent developed society today, is much larger than it was a century ago.

-         ‘Liason elite’ provide indispensable structural linkage between centres and peripheries of Western international political economy.

-         Imperialism also brought forward its counterpart – movement for national independence (after October Revolution is anti-capitalist in character).

-         Imperialism is related to the industrialization of the Western centre and the nonindustrialization of the periphery, also relating to the increasingly unequal distribution of power and material wellbeing between them.

-         Militant nationalism believe that development can and will proceed rapidly only when the existing elites have been forcefully removed from power and the existing ties to the capitalist world replaced by ties to the socialist world.

-         Whether a society develops depends on the kind of international setting in which it exists.

-         MNCs actually stand in the way of developing countries development as modernization for these countries, lies in moving towards a well-defined national economy or toward being part of an increasingly interdependent regional economy. MNCs stand across these paths.

Allen & Thomas (Chapter 2):

-         Two very different visions for development; that of a modern industrial society (usually combined with liberal democracy), and that of a society where every individual’s potential can be realised.

-         Immanent development is a spontaneous & perhaps unconscious form of development; intentional development implies deliberate efforts to achieve higher levels in terms of set objectives.

-         In order to develop from MT point of view, developing countries need to undergo industrial revolutions, leading to economic development & economic growth , producing high per capita income.

-         Dudley Seers pointed out the importance of value judgements in deciding what is or is not ‘development’. His first three conditions were; capacity to obtain necessities, obtaining a job & equality. Furthermore, Seers recognized the need to have participation in govt, belonging to an independent nation and adequate educational levels.