MODERNISATION THEORY (incomplete) Flashcards
(6 cards)
Who developed this theory and what did they argue?
- Walt Rostow
- argues that all societies evolve through the same series of stages to affluence, during which technological innovations allow industrialisation to occur.
What does this theory argue that affluence and poverty are linked to?
Affluence and poverty are linked to where a country is on the ladder of social evolution - with poor countries less evolved (or less developed) than rich, industrial Northern hemisphere.
What is the key challenge for modernisation theory?
- to identify the barriers which prevent development, and providing interventions which will allow them to be overcome.
What did Walt Rostow argue about economic barriers?
- Rostow argues that because Southern hemisphere countries are based on subsistence (with food being produced to feed families, rather than generate wealth), the profit needed to buy and develop new technologies never accumulates.
- This creates a vicious circle, as people in the south are never able to produce their goods cheaply or efficiently enough to generate wealth.
In order to overcome these barriers, Rostow advocates a three-pronged attack consisting of:
- Aid payments from the richer world, to provide the initial injection of capital
- Involvement of northern-hemisphere countries, bring with them new technologies and expertise.
- Adequate wages paid to workers, to enable wealth to filter down and fuel economic growth.
What did Talcott Parsons argue about cultural barriers?
For Parsons, the barriers which prevent the southern hemisphere from attaining Northern standards of living are also cultural, linked to the norms and values present within these countries.
For instance, a number of features – such as emphasis on tradition, ascribed statuses and collectivism – discourage entrepreneurialism. Consequently, early capitalists – who reinvest profits in order to accumulate further wealth– do not emerge, stunting the evolutionary process.
Furthermore, family structure in the southern hemisphere is seen as problematic. Strong links to extended-family (in contrast to the more geographically mobile nuclear family) means that there is no readily available workforce available to many new factories created during industrialisation.
As was the case with economic barriers to development, three inventions are suggested to overcome cultural barriers to development.
- Education systems should be established.
- Mass media should be developed.
- Urbanisation should be encouraged, as cultural change spread much more rapidly in cities.
Strengths of modernisation theory? (3)
The main strength underpinning the popularity of this theory is that it offers practical solutions to poverty. Its principles are consequently tangible in both the popular consciousness and a range of development projects – from small, charity led initiatives, to large scare United Nation policies.
- There is also empirical evidence to support the principles espoused by the perspective. Most notably, Rostow’s model is based on the development path already taken by industrial capitalist nations – which have been largely successful in raising the standards of life for their populations. The success of the injections of financial capital delivered under the Marshall Plan to Europe following the second world war – aiming to finance the rebuilding of industrial infrastructure – also seem to support the perspective’s key principles. Finally, the past fifty years has seen practically all indicators of development rise in Newly Industrialised countries – nations which have applied modernisation theory’s principles.
- By raising the issue of culture (Parsons) as a determinant of development, they highlight that ‘progress’ is more than just economic reform – demonstrating that simply ‘throwing money at the poor world’ will not necessarily improve those countries. It is however, important to note that modernisation theories have been the target of considerable criticism.
