Neoclassical Development Theory

Rostow's suggests that development is seen as an evolutionary process that countries progress up a ladder, his five-stage model;

Economic Development: Growth is associated with structural, social change and change in the important institutions of the economy.

Growth to Self-Sustaining Economic Development. Rostow puts forward that there is a short time span between take off (stage 2) and maturity (stage 3) when a country becomes

The reader must understand that development is not easily defined within comparative politics. The concept of development is complex and can not be explained as simply as black and white. “For example would you say an oil-rich country such as Saudi Arabia is experiencing development if its economy is growing rapidly but nearly all of the benefits of the growth are going to a small number of elite? Would you say that a country is developing if people are

Economic growth, put simply, is “an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time”; development is inextricably linked with this economic growth. By utilising theories of economic growth and development we can see how the Chinese and Sub-Saharan African economies have emerged, but, more notably, we can use these to look at patterns from past and present to show their experience and the implications of this growth for the future.

A developmental state is characterized by having strong state intervention, as well as extensive regulation and planning. There is little government ownership of industry, but the private sector is rigidly guided by bureaucratic government elites. These elites are not elected officials and are thus less subject to influence by either the corporate-class or working-class through the political process. The argument here is that a government can have the freedom to plan the economy and look to long-term national interests without having their economic policies disrupted by the short-term interests of the corporate-class or

Ha-Joon Chang is a distinguished economist from Seoul, South Korea specializing in developmental economics. He attended the University of Cambridge in 1986 as a graduate student and earned his PhD for his thesis the political economy of industrial policy - reflections on the role of state intervention in 1992 and has taught as a professor of the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge since 1990. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, as well as to Oxfam and various United Nations agencies. He is also employed at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. and is on the advisory board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP). His approach to economics is so inspiring and continues to influence those in high power such as Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador. His insight on economic policy has been spread worldwide through his numerous books that are still widely discussed today. It has earned him his many achievements, including his ranking as one of the top 20 World Thinkers in 2013 in Prospect Magazine.

Development: It is increasing the standard of living by considering economics is the key function. Every theory of development has functions of economics. It plays a vital role in social science. It is widely considered as “committed” i.e., serves an interest especially class interest. Economists have equal important like scientists, because these people concern with important issues like economic growth, employment and development etc., Economic theories of development have own way of History, projections, philosophical bias, practice, language and relations. These properties of theories depend on particular

The term “development” has been used by political, economic and international relations scholars to explain the relative economic statutes of various countries around the world. Numerous scholars have concerns about the potentially hegemonic nature of using the term “development”. Rhetorically, their concerns range from potential bias at the expense of indigenous methods to the continuation of western imperialist domination and exploitation of lands yet to be further explored. A few of the main concerns of these scholars is ethnic cleansing, resource extraction and false perceptions of the term.

In the global economy, issues of poverty has for some time been at the centre of developmental goal of nations. The poor nations are eager to come out of poverty; the rich nations are evolving welfare strategies to improve the quality of life of their people. Poverty has been defined in many ways by several scholars, but what seems to be a general consensus is that poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon. According to (Narayan and Petesch 2002) Poverty is regarded as lack of financial capability to obtain basic need of life such as food, cloth, shelter as well as lack of access to education, health care and security. While some school of thought mirror poverty from absolute perspective and conclude that it is possible to

Amartya Sen defines economic development in terms of personal freedom, freedom to choose from a range of options. While economic growth may lead to an increase in the purchasing power of people, if the country has a repressed economy, there is lack of choice and hence personal freedom in restricted. Hence once again growth has taken place without any development. While economic growth may result in an improvement in the standard of living of a relatively small proportion of the population whilst the majority of the population remains poor. It is how the economic growth is distributed amongst the population that determines the level of development.

Most of the developing countries are mired deeply in economical obstacles, which prevent them from development significantly. In order to overcome those embarrassments world’s society struggles to find the efficient solution for poor countries’ economies. Historically, developed countries undertook policy of giving aid to their colonies, afterwards by the end of The Second World War the United States and United Nations embarked the global sponsorship to the developing countries and countries of the Third World due to humanitarian considerations. Since then many other countries have joined in the effort to provide financial aid to lesser developed or poverty ridden countries. But none of those countries that received an aid had experienced a prosperity phase and rapid economic growth.

Development is defined as “the process of change operating over time- the process by which countries and societies advance and become richer’’. The modern 20th century defines development as” the process of change which allows all the basic needs of a region to be met, thereby achieving greater social justice and quality of life and encouraging people to fulfill their potential’’. Todaro defines development as “the process of improving the quality of all human lives through raising people’s living standards, their incomes, consumption levels of food, medical services, education, raising people’s self-esteem through the establishment of social, political and economic systems and institutions that promote dignity and respect and increasing people’s

The term developmental state has been widely utilised to describe any state experiencing a period of economic development and improvement in living standards (Pham, 2012). One of the most significant arguments in this scope is the performance of developmental state model. A number of scholars have attempted to investigate this issue and arguments can be divided into three categories. Proponents of state intervention indicate that the state plays an indispensable role in directing economic development and utilising the resources of the country to achieve development goals. On the contrary, those who oppose state-led model argue

He pointed out that different economic levels have their own requirements and they may not follow the same process of industrialization. Moreover, he raised the most influential theory related to late industrialization that the economically backward states may have rapider growth rate as they are late comers, and the national development process relied on the degree of economic backwardness. That is to say the more backward a country, the faster it will advance (ibid).