NADEVCO 10-13-10

Modernization

Core Proposition 1:

 The central element of the development perspective mainstream is the

metaphor of GROWTH as manifested in the organism.

 It also further implies STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION and INCREASING

COMPLEXITY.

- Evolutionist: recent history of the west could be taken as evidence of the direction
in which mankind can move as a whole.

- Endogenous:

Core Proposition 2:

 Underdevelopment is an ORIGINAL STATE characterized by an agrarian

economy and traditional/rural culture while development is a DESTIATION
STATE characterized by ECONOMIC MODERNISATION, URBANISATION,
INDUSTRIALISATION, and WESTERNISATION.

Backward →Advanced

Core Proposition 3:

 Marshall Plan: a blueprint for modernization used in the US to recover after

the Depression.

 The movement from underdevelopment to development is UNIVERSAL,

UNILINEAR, SEQUENTIAL, and consists of STANDARD STEPS OR STAGES on
how to develop the state.

Core Proposition 4:

 Modernization theory is OPTIMISTIC. It assumes that DEVELOPMENT is

INEVITABLE. Any nation-state aspiring to develop need only to follow the
EUROCENTRIC BLUEPRINT.

 TRANSPLANTATION OF WESTERN CAPITAL, TECHNOLOGY, INSTITUTIONS,

ORGANISATIONS and VALUES.

Core Proposition 5:

 Development needs the adoption of MODERN VALUE SYSTEM and MORDERN

ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES. The process of bringing about development
 requires EXTERNAL AID and FACILITATION. Development may be
EXTERNALLY-INDUCED.

Core Proposition 6:

 A nation-state is considered developed if it has attained a certain level of

ECONOMIC GROWTH indicated by its GNP. WEALTH is created primarily for an
elite group of investors & capitalists and only expected to eventually TRICKLE
DOWN to the larger population.

MODERNISATION PARADIGM

- Linear Stages-of-Growth Model (Rostow, Harrod-Domar)

- Theories & Patterns of Structural Change

- International Change Revolution

LINEAR STAGES MODEL – WW Rostow: Stages of Economic Growth

- Conceived development as a number of stages linking a state of tradition

with maturity.

- 5 Stages: Traditional society -> Pre-take-off society -> take-off -> Road to
maturity -> Mass consumption society

- Necessary for any take-off was the mobilization of domestic and foreign
saving in order to generate sufficient investment to accelerate economic
growth and the removal of barriers to modernization rooted in the traditional
culture.

- Fueled by Cold War politics and the competitiveness of the allegiance of

newly-independent nations.

LINEAR STAGES MODEL: Harrod-Domar Growth Model

- The rate of growth of national income is determined jointly by the national

savings and the national capital-output ratios.

- The more an economy is able to save, the greater the income will grow.

- Main obstacle to development is the relatively low level of new capital

formation in most poor countries, this “savings gap” could be filled through
by foreign aid or private foreign investment -> BIG PUSH (Lewis) to overcome
traps or vicious circles (Liebenstein)
 - Capital constraint stages approach became a rationale and opportunistic tool
for justifying massive transfer of capital and technical assistance.

STRUCTURAL CHANGE MODEL: Lewis Theory of Development

- 2-sector model: underdeveloped economy consists of (1) traditional,

overpopulated rural subsistence sector characterized by 0 marginal labor
productivity and (2) a high productivity modern urban industrial sector into
which labor from the subsistence sector is gradually transferred.

- Labor transfer and modern-sector employment growth brought about by

expansion in the sector. Investment is made possible by the excess of
modern sector profits over wages on the assumption that capitalists reinvest
all profits. Level of wages in the urban industrial sector assumed constant
and higher than fixed are subsistence wages in agriculture.

STRUCTURAL CHANGE AND PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT

- Set of interrelated changes in the economic structure are required for the
transition from traditional to modern. Best-known -> HB Chenery ->
Characteristics of the Development Process.

o Steady accumulation of physical and human capital

o Shift from agricultural to industrial production

o Change in consumer demands from food and basic necessities to

diverse manufactured goods and services

o Growth of cities and urban industries as people migrate from farms

and small towns (internal migration)

o Decline in family size and population growth as children lose economic

value

CAPITALIST MODERNITY

- The main problem in relating social and cultural factors to economic variables
is to determine how the societal structure of a less developed country
changes into that of an economically-advanced country. (Hoselitz)

- Barriers to modernization came to be identified with various sociological,

psychological and political factors or non-economic factors.

- A BIG PUSH could not be expected because countries were underdeveloped

not only in terms of investment inputs but also in terms of decision-making,
entrepreneurship and administrative efficiency.
Talcott Parson’s Pattern Variables

- Particularism vs. Universalism

o Range of people that are to be considered; issue is whether to act

“on the basis of a general norm or reacting on the basis of someone’s
particular relationship to you.”

o A bureaucracy is characterized by universal forms of relationships

where everyone is to be treated impartially and much the same.

- Ascription vs. Achievement

o Qualities of individuals and often inborn qualities such as sex,

ethnicity, race, age, family status, or characteristics of the household
of origin. Achievement refers to performance, and emphasizes
individual achievement.

- Diffuseness-specificity

o Refers to the range of obligations involved or nature of social contracts

and how extensive or how narrow are the obligations in any interaction
contacts with other individuals in a bureaucracy may be devoid of
emotion and characterized by affective neutrality.

WEBER AND BUREAUCRACY (1912)

- Theorize the ideal type organization of the industrial era from structures of
earlier civilizations for reproduction in modern industrial organizations.

o Division of labor based on specialization.

o Departmentalization of jobs based on functional coherence of tasks.

o Hierarchical organization of departments to facilitate top down,

centralized control and coordination of workflow, communication and
accountability reporting (includes determination of effective span of
control).

o Accountability and direction taking based on chain of command and

unity of command.

o Formalization of standard operating procedure.

o Implementation or administration of narrow sphere of competence

based on clearly defined rules of a largely technical frame of reference.
 o Meritocracy.

MERTON AND BUREAUCRACY (1940)

- Wrote about the tendency of replications of the ideal type of bureaucracy to

emerge dysfunctions in practice or to degenerate into bureaupathologies.

o Tendency to inflexibility and rigidity

o Red tape and sluggishness of bureaucratic organizations

o The displacement of goals among workers from efficient administration

to following rules

o Reification of the neutrality and impersonalism of modern businesslike

administration into haughtiness and arrogance

o Transference of public accountability to the chain of command rather

than outwardly to people among others.