This essay shall discuss two theories of development – modernisation and dependency theory (MT and DT). In this limited space, I shall narrow my analysis down to two of the staunchest representatives of each camp: Walt W. Rostow and André G. Frank. Also, because it is impossible to discuss their broad publications, I shall subject only the very core of their theories to scrutiny here. After (1) a quest for the shared assumptions of both theories, this account will discuss (2) Rostow’s idea of stages of economic growth (1959) and (3) Frank’s notion of development of underdevelopment (1966), both with their policy implications1. I will treat these mutually exclusive ideas as thesis and anti-thesis and shortly discuss (4) the direction into which a synthesis could go (and maybe has gone).
Posts Tagged ‘development’
Discussion of modernisation and dependency theory
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom – A Discussion
Thursday, March 11th, 2010‘Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principle means.’ – Amartya Sen (1999, p. 10)
Amartya Sen’s quote which I am to discuss in this paper stems from his work Development as Freedom, which has been described by The Economist as ‘a personal manifesto [and] a summing up’ (Anonymous 1999). A summing up of what?