"Compare and contrast modernisation theory and dependency theory as explanations of development and under-development"

“Compare and contrast modernisation theory and dependency theory as explanations of development and under-development”

The two theories, modernisation and dependency both give valid and just explanations for development and underdevelopment. There is a notable likeness in them both but there are also many differences and neither escape criticisms.

Modernisation theory was before dependency theory and was developed in the 1950/60s; the theory is based on 4 main assumptions. Western societies are the most advanced in terms of technological, social and political terms, countries go through a series of stages on their route to becoming advanced, this path is a ‘natural’ form of development and there must be something preventing them from doing this and finally, these underdeveloped nations can advance without an changes taking place in the finance and trading patterns of the capitalist world. The modernisation theory is politically conservative as it sees nations being undeveloped because they lack the qualities that developed nations have, this is compared with the dependency theory who see this underdevelopment due to the exploitation of advanced nations.

W.W. Rostow is one of the most notable modernisation theorists; he argued that there are a number of stages that a traditional society has to pass through to become a modern society. His work is combined with the four key elements above and his own model of stages based on the British industrial revolution. He puts forward the idea that all countries have to pass through the following five stages of economic growth. Firstly societies start off traditionally; mostly agricultural with a lack of scientific and technological knowledge, Somalia is one country who is considered to still be in this stage. Secondly a society which has had an increase in trade and industry with emerging elite who, unlike traditional societies can use scientific and technical knowledge for investment and economic growth like Ghana. The third stage is referred to by Rostow as ‘take off’, this is when investment grows to around ten percent of the countries income, the country also continues to grow in social and political ways many countries like Botswana are currently in this stage. Fourthly is the drive to maturity when investment, social and political reform continue to grow like China and Russia. Lastly is the age of mass consumption, this is where economic production is high and social and political choices can be made about society this is found in countries like Britain, USA and South Korea.

The main idea of modernisation is the last countries mentioned, for example USA has passed through all 5 stages of the model and that if the less developed societies wish to do the same then they also need to do this. Theorists like Rostow also accounted internal factors as lack of development e.g. investment, science and technology, unlike dependency theory which concerns itself with external factors, to the less developed societies being considered. As well as passing through the above five stages Rostow believes that all countries need to concentrate on industrialisation and the use of advanced technology to ...

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Its concern with technology has led to one criticism, that the modernisation is too technologically deterministic, it believes that changes in technology will lead to changes in the rest of society. A critic of the Modernisation theory Kiely criticised the theory in a few ways, it’s assumption that developing from a traditional into a modern society escapes all problems and only requires more investment, that modern societies do not have problems e.g. America was seen as a meritocracy which is untrue in the case of black Americans and that modernity does not just solves problems but also creates them. In addition to these criticisms Kiely made O’Donnell also made the following criticisms; the theory is ethnocentric and has no consideration of some underdeveloped societies cultures, its blueprint feel lacks historical reality, theorists ignore possible conflicts which may occur due to development and the assumptions made in the classical theory are now redundant e.g. the World Bank no longer takes it for granted that economic growth will benefit all in a society.

Contrasted with the modernisation theory is the dependency theory, it argues that underdeveloped countries existed in an economy dominated by Western and developed countries. It also puts emphasis and accountability for underdevelopment on external factors unlike the dependency theory.

Andre Gunder Frank believed that there is a close relationship with third world countries and western first world countries, Frank believes that the west is actually making under-developed countries poorer. He also makes a contrast with undeveloped and under-developed countries, undeveloped countries have no manufacturing sector and also no interface to change this whereas under-developed countries have some manufacturing as a result of an external interface yet are poor. Underdevelopment is the process where the economy of a third world country is distorted by the TNCs of a western nation. All the profits and wealth for these countries, produced in the third world, is transferred back to the first, western countries.

A key concept to aid this theory by Frank is the ‘metropolis-satellite relationship’. Countries like London and Paris are all international metropolises; they use their dominance in the world markets of raw and manufactured goods. There are normally operated via local agents in capitals of the third world, these capitals are the satellites. This means that they are national metropolises and they, like the international metropolises, exploit the other local satellites and this process keeps on going until the poor peasant is finally exploited by their local landlord.

For true development Frank believes that this chain must be broken, unlike we have seen in the Modernisation theory links with international metropolis aren’t at all beneficial but harmful and that supporters of the Modernisation theory tend to be the Western governments and companies themselves.

This theory gives us a great contrast to that of the modernisation theory and does explain much of the interlocking in world economy. However, his solution of under-development, isolation, does not seem to produce any better results as seen from a number of countries like Brazil and Nicaragua. A second criticism is from modernization theorists, who point out that countries like South Korea and Taiwan who have been industrialized have in fact become developed and affluent within the world economy.

"Compare and contrast modernisation theory and dependency theory as explanations of development and under-development"

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