2.6: theories of development

origins of development (and lack thereof)

• development: the process of improving the conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology

• developed country/more developed country/MDC: a country that has progressed further along on the development continuum

• developing country/less developed country/LDC: a country that has made some progress toward development, but less than MDCs

• human development index/HDI: a United Nations measurement of development in a country based on:

  • a decent standard of living
  • a long and healthy life
  • access to knowledge/education
  • based on a 1.0 scale, 1.0 being 100% developed

• different factors are attributed to causing development and underdevelopment

  • underdevelopment can often be traced back to exploitation by those in positions of power and/or a lack of private investment and trade

• observing levels of development is generally relatively easy, but it’s often difficult to explain the causes behind these levels

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theories of development

exploitation-based theories

• dependency theory — colonial powers of Europe (and later the US) established trade relationships to extract the wealth from colonized territories
  • argues that Africa, Asia, and Latin America are less developed because of colonization and colonial activity
  • food, minerals, etc. are sent to colonial powers from colonies, draining the colonies themselves of labor and their own resources
  • cheap goods from colonial territories are exported to colonizers and sold back to colonies at a higher price, thus the colonial powers make more of a profit off less of their own effort
• world systems theory — expansion of dependency theory; posits that trade relationships shape “winners” and “losers” in global development
  • states fall into one of three categories:
  • core states — hold the greatest economic, political, and military influence
  • semi-peripheral states — middle group
  • peripheral states — largely export raw materials
  • core/periphery ideals are seen locally through dualism, median earnings, life expectancy, and education level by state
  • most developed US regions: New England and Mid-Atlantic; least developed are generally South through Appalachia
  • many developed states have big cities to boost their economies (eg. Los Angeles and San Francisco (California), New York City (New York), Washington, DC (DC itself, but also the states surrounding it) → globally connected
  • many cities have highly skilled and highly educated employees and major corporations, whereas many rural areas are less developed due to lower incomes and lower levels of education
  • income and education levels are heavily tied to live expectancy and health
  • dualism could indicate exploitation between rural and urban areas
  • wealth extracted from rural (peripheral) areas accumulates in urban (core) areas

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market-based theories

• modernization theory — if the ownership of private property, entrepreneurship, trade, and technology is encouraged [mostly by the government, also through societal customs], a place will be more developed, and vise-versa
• W.W. Rostow added a lot to the modernization theory
  • the stages of development under this model:
  • traditional society — limited technological advances, social organization is family-based
    • eg. Chinese dynasties, medieval Europe
  • precondition for take-off — regional power structures become centralized nation-states, science advances, private entrepreneurs arise
  • each following stage of the demographic transition model follow more or less with their descriptions on the model itself

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