Dependency Theory: Rostow's Theory Of Development And Modernization

Rostow’s process of modernization shows little or no respect for other non-western civilizations by reducing them to a common description of backwardness. As observed by Hartwick and Peet (2015: 149) development meant assuming the mental models of the West (rationalization), the institutions of the West (the market), the goals of the West (high mass consumption), and the culture of the West (the worship of commodities).

Most third world countries still remain underdeveloped despite being in contact with western civilization. In the wake of these negative effects, the link between the concept of development and modernity has been heavily criticized. Pieterse (2001: 1) observes that modernity no longer seems so attractive in the wake of ecological

Dependency theory is generally perceived in development discourse as an improvement of modernization theory. Dos Santos defines dependency as an historical condition which shapes a certain structure of the world economy such that it favours some countries to the detriment of others and limits the development possibilities of the subordinate economics...a situation in which the economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy, to which their own is subjected (Dos Santos 1971: 226). Dependency theory traces its origin in Marxist political economy. The key argument of dependency theorists, or dependistas as they were known, was that Latin American countries found themselves in position of ‘underdevelopment’ because of the operation of the capitalist system (Willis 2005: 69). According to this theory, core countries were developing and growing their economy by manipulating and exploiting the peripheral third world

Again, the experiences of East Asian countries namely; Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1970s have challenged the thinking advanced by dependency theorists that capitalist form of development would not work in peripheral countries. The East Tigers attained a considerable level of industrialization despite starting off in the peripheral. The success of these countries had been a result of trade links with the advanced industrialised countries. Critics have used this as a classic