Causes of Development and Underdevelopment - Essay Example

The paper will comment on the strength of these views and close with my position on the explanation of the causes of development and underdevelopment. Modernization theories propose that a country’s underdevelopment is a function of factors internal to the country. These factors include illiteracy, traditional attitude of population, traditional agrarian system of production, low division of labor and poor infrastructure. Development comes with a change in these internal factors. Modernization theories conceptualize development along a continuum.

These theories perceive the degree of a country’s underdevelopment as being its level of backwardness relative to the countries ahead of it. Modernization defines development in terms of modernization of means of production and increased know how that is supposed to impact the level of per capita income positively (Lie & Brym, 2006). Dualism theories separate a country’s economic and social elements. Economic dualism relates the modern sector with the traditional sector. Modern sector produces in large scale, is capital intensive and have clearly defined division of labor.

Traditional sector, on the other hand, produces largely for subsistence, is labor intensive, have a reduced capital intensity and poor division of labor. . Unbalanced growth theory emphasizes underdevelopment is characterized by the poor entrepreneurial abilities. It prescribes that investment should be channeled to the imbalanced projects proportionately so that entrepreneurial abilities are not weighed down and in the end they invite additional investments. The theory of stages of growth proposes that economic development happens in five stages.

While, at the traditional society stage, majority of the population are laborers; power is in the hands of a few persons. The transitional stage avails the conditions required to bring radical change and the idea of economic development are thought of as coming from without the society. Take off stage is marked by increased investment in per capita output (Szostak, 2009). Drive to maturity stage sets in when the growth spreads to most of the sectors and modern technology is greatly embraced. Stage of high mass consumption is the last and is marked by attainment of considerable national income, formulation of clearly spelt out economic policy and well pronounced private consumption.

Big-push theory proposes that investments need to have a considerably high minimum so as to give out better benefits for external economies. The emphasis here is on infrastructure and industry development. The theory of development poles emphasizes the indispensable role of regional development to the development in the larger society. Circular causation theory underpins the cumulation of factors in both negative or positive cycles and the subsequent impact on development. The theory opposes development poles theory.

Social psychological theories emphasize the role of individual and group values and motivations