DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETIES: Handout 3

Theories of Development, Debates on Development

3.1 What is Development?

The term development is very vast in its meaning and definition. Different schools of thought have
emphasized different dimensions of development. However, it has been fundamentally defined as a
process of change that involves the whole society- its economic, socio-cultural, political and physical
structure, as well as the value system and way of life of the people.

The concept of development has subjective evaluation, and objective empirical meaning.

From the former perspective, it can be viewed as a process of realizing certain goals or values such
as-

- improved health and housing,

- better nutrition,

- greater communication networks,

- improved transportation and increased command over resources.

On the other hand, ‘more developed’ and ‘less developed’ countries can be comparatively studied,
and the empirical differences between them can be used to illustrate the meaning of development.

In his book ‘Doctrines of Development,’ Cowen and Shenton have analysed various interpretation of
development and defined development as-
- a process of enlarging people’s choices;
- of enhancing participatory democratic processes and
- the ability of people to have a say in the decisions that shape their lives;
- of providing human beings with the opportunity to develop their fullest potential;
- of enabling the poor, women, and ‘free independent peasants’ to organise for themselves
and work together.

The modern concept of development is not very old. It emerged in the lexicon of economics after
the Second World War. But even before it, classical debates of growth, progress and evolutionary
change of society laid the basic foundation of modern concept of development. We have already

1
discussed evolutionary change of society. So here, we will discuss growth and progress first, and
then the modern concept of development.

3.2 Shifting debate of Development:

Period Perspectives Meaning of Development

1940 Development Economics Economic Growth- Industrialization
1950 Modernization Theory Growth, Political and Social
Modernization
1960 Dependency Theory Accumulation-national, Auto-centric
1970 Alternative Development Human Flourishing
1980 Human Development Enlargement of People’s Choices
1990 Post-development Authoritarian Engineering, Disaster

Development Economics (1940):

After the Second World War, when the debate on development was in the initial stage, the central
focus of this debate was on economic development. These models of development laid emphasis on
growth of the GDP/GNP and favoured rapid industrialization had a heavy accent on science and
technology; and suggested loosening of market forces as remedial mechanism for poverty and
underdevelopment.

The economists who supported this model argued that economic development alone is an
instrument of social transformation, and that economic development through market mechanisms
would ultimately pull the country out of the quagmire of poverty, and in the long run it would
benefit everyone in the society.

The prophets of this model kept reiterating that economic growth is an indispensable condition for
development. Many third world countries, including India also vigorously pursued this model for
their development. But these models seemed to have become ineffective after some time.

The increased GNP benefited the top echelons where as the rest of the population remained largely
unaffected. Soon most of distinguished economists and Social Scientists of the third world countries
challenged the bias of these Western models of development.

Modernization Theory (1950):

2
Modernization theory of development is a theory which explains the process of modernization by
which a society develops from one stage to the other, traditional to modern or underdeveloped to
developed.

Core Proposition of Modernization Theory:

Modernization theory states that underdeveloped countries can be also developed by following the
same path which has already been treaded by the developed countries. Modernization theory
favours linear path of development in which society evolves from one stage to the other.
Modernization theory proposes that societies progress through similar stages. This notion lays
emphasis that the developed countries of this time were in the same situation in the past that the
underdeveloped countries are facing today. Therefore, the underdeveloped countries should pursue
a common path of development, for instance-investment style, technology transfer, closer
integration into the world market etc, for their development.
N.J. Smelser was a famous Sociologist who was concerned with the analysis of development.
Smelser argues that modernization comes from economic development and change in social
structure. He presented four important processes which are part and parcel of this change-

(a) Change in technology: From simple to complex

(b) Change in Agriculture: From self consumption farming to cash crops.

(c) Change in Energy Consumption: Move from animal energy to big machines.

(d) Change in Demography: Move from rural to urban area, from joint family to nuclear family.

Samuel P. Huntington: Huntington’s view is concerned with a different approach which analyzes the
relationship between democracy and development with respect to the modernization theory. He
calls this view the “Grand Process of Modernization”.

According to Huntington, Modernization is a complex, systemic, global, lengthy, homogenizing,

irreversible and progressive process that transforms a society from traditional to modern.
Huntington presents democracy as an inevitable part of modernization which is the result of
rationality, specialization in bureaucratic structures and emerging concept of citizenship. In
Huntington’s words – “Social mobilization involves change in the aspirations of individuals, groups
and societies; economic development involves changes in their capabilities, Modernization requires
both.”

Dependency Theory (1960):

3
Dependency theory evolved in the late 1950s as a criticism of earlier theories of development,
specially of the modernization theory. The basic emphasis of this theory is to focus upon the
process by which underdeveloped countries are getting more and more impoverished and
dependent upon the developed countries. Dependency theory rejected the propositions of
Modernization theory by arguing that the condition of underdeveloped countries is very different
from the developed countries. Every country has unique circumstances, different socio-economic
structures, cultural heritage as well as human and natural resources.

Central Proposition of Dependency Theory:

 Underdevelopment is a condition which is different from un-development.

Underdevelopment refers to a situation in which resources are being actively used, but used
in a way which benefits dominant States and not the poorer States in which the resources
are found.
 The undeveloped countries are poor because they are integrated into the economic system
of developed countries, only as producers of raw materials or to serve as repositories of
cheap labour, and are denied the opportunity to market their resources in any way that
competed with dominant States.
 Developed countries create a situation of dependence for the underdeveloped countries by
the process of global hegemony. This global hegemony affects all spheres of human life, for
instance- economic, political, cultural, mass media, education, sport, banking and finance
etc.
 Dependency theory suggests alternative path to uses of resources for their development and
rejects those patterns which are imposed by the dominant States. There may be some
indigenous model of development, which the underdeveloped countries may follow and
 come out from the stage of dependence.

World System Theory:

World system theory is an approach that seeks to explain the dynamics of the “Capitalist world
economy” and social change. This approach refers to the entire world system as the basic unit of
social analysis. World system refers to the international division of labour, which divides the world
into three categories-

- core countries,

- semi-periphery countries and

- the periphery countries.

4
The world system theory has been developed by Immanuel Wallerstein.

World System Theory emerged in the mid 1970s as a counter theory for the modernization theory.
World system theory criticized the modernization theory on the basis of the following points-

(a) It focused on the nation State as the only unit of analysis.

(b) Modernization theory favours a common path of development for all countries which seems
irrational.

(c) It disregards transnational structures that constrain local and national development.

For Wallerstein – World system economy is a set of mechanisms which redistributes resources from
the periphery to the core. Here the term core refers to the developed countries, the term periphery
refers to the underdeveloped regions of the world which only produce cheap labour and raw
material for the developed.

According to Wallerstein, in the current capitalist world economy, core countries are exploiting the
periphery. The prominent aim of the world system theory and also of Wallerstein is to focus upon
the exploitation of the periphery in a capitalist economy at the first place. Secondly, to present a
multidisciplinary approach, which analyzes the whole world system as a unit. Third, to present an
alternative model which may replace the previous theory.

Alternative Development (1970):

After 1970, the discourse of alternative development evolved as a critique of mainstream

development. Alternative development redefines the goal of development and also presents
alternative practices. This new paradigm of alternative development carries the goal of previous
mainstream development but it uses new means, adopts more participatory approaches, local and
community level practices, and is more people-centered.
J.N. Pieterse presents three reasons for the rise of the theory of alternative development:

1. The enormous growth of N.G.O. in number and influence generates a growing demand for
strategy and therefore theory.
2. The importance of environmental concerns and sustainability has weakened the economic
growth paradigm and given a boost to alternative and ecological economics.
3. The glaring failure of several development decades further unsettles the mainstream
paradigm of growth.

The concept of Social Development was also part and parcel of alternative development. The
concept of social development emphasizes on the “quality of life” as the factor affecting social

5
well being, for example, the ability of every human being to satisfy his/her basic needs and
achieve a satisfactory quality of life within the environment of equity.

Central tenets of social development:

(1) Economic growth is an essential but not sufficient condition to ensure social development and
the strategies of development in order to be more effective; should focus on societies and not on
economies.

(2) Development should be human-centred and broad-based creating equal opportunities for all to
participate fully and freely in economic, social, cultural and political activities.

(3) People are the end and not the means of economic progress and development.

(4) Economic growth should subserve the cause of social development and ensure that development
has a human face.

(5) Social development and economic progress are mutually reinforcing. Social development helps
reduce economic inequalities and bolsters economic growth; equitable growth creates jobs and
reduces poverty.

Human Development (1980):

There are two other concepts which are largely concerned with social development –

- Human Development, and,

- Sustainable Human Development

The concept Human Development emphasizes on investment in human skills. Human

Development treats human beings as a resource and tries to develop this human resource. The
essence of human development is to place development at the service of people. In this
perspective human development implies empowering people to make their own choices. It also
emphasized the relevance of local values and knowledge as guidelines and tools for making these
choices. Thus human development refers to human –centric development; it always aims to improve
human well being and the quality of individual’s life.

Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen were pioneers of this debate. Mahbub ul Haq devised Human
Development Index (HDI) which has been used since 1990 by United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) for its annual Human Development Report.

6
The HDI was constituted in three steps. In the first step, a measure of deprivation that a country
suffers in each of the three basic variables, were included. Life expectancy, literacy and real GDP per
capita were defined. The deprivation measures then put a country in the range of zero to one as
defined by the difference between the maximum and the minimum. The second step was to define
an average deprivation indicator. This was done by taking a simple average of the three indicators. In
the third step, HDI is measured as one minus the deprivation index.

Amartya Sen, in his seminal work ‘Development as Freedom’ defines development in a new
framework. According to Sen, development can be seen as a process of expanding the real freedoms
that people enjoy.

Post-development (1990):

Post-development is a radical reaction to all previous discourses of development. Post development

discourse rejects present notion of development because it is the religion of the West and it is the
imposition of science as power. Post development focuses on the underlying premises and motives
of development and what sets it apart from other critical approaches is its rejection of
development. It is a post-development debate which criticized previous alternatives. Post-
development thinking is parallel to dependency theory in many respects, for example, in the case
of monopoly of global capitalism, in seeking autonomy from external dependency.
But Post-development goes beyond it and has now taken the debate of development to the
power/knowledge regime. The basic emphasis of Post-development is on localization. Post-
development rejects all types of Globalization in any sphere- political, cultural, in knowledge etc.
Post development focuses upon local knowledge, culture, needs and participation. It borrows the
Foucauldian concept of power /knowledge to reject the Western dominant knowledge tradition,
most prominently regarding science.