Modernization Theory

According to Daniel Learner, the operational values or characteristics of Modernization are:

-          A degree of self-sustaining growth in the economy or at least growth sufficient to increase both production and consumption.

-          A measure of public participation in the policy alternatives or at least democratic representation in defining and choosing all policy level.

-          Diffusion of secular-rational norms in culture.

-          An increment of mobility in the society understood as personal freedom of physical, social and psychic movement.

-          Corresponding transformation in the modal personality.

Modernization in most of the views, defined as the process of acquiring or imitating of the western and European culture by the less developed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Simply this is the process of being developed in technology, tradition, behavior, and economy with more liberalization and globalization. This concept emerged mainly after the World War II. Due to the cold war and polarization between former USSR (Warsaw Pact) and USA (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

Contexts of Modernization:

a)      ‘Poverty is not inevitable fate’ awareness campaign.

b)      Freedom of Colonization

c)      Cold War

d)      Population Explosion

Key Assumptions:

-          Culture always transfers from developed to less developed

-          Change in technology, economy, trends, plans and policies etc.

-          Modernization process is based on trickle-down (Trickle-down) approach.

-          Mentality that adopting the culture of developed societies lets development for less developed ones.

-          Advancement in technology, culture, tradition economy, infrastructures etc.

-          Only way to achieve development is adoption of culture.

In Nepalese context, Modernization begins only after 2007, then foreigners are allowed to enter into Nepalese territory freely. In 2013 Nepal adopted planning strategy in national level, planned development begins. New education system in 2028, establishment of television 2041, political change of 2046 and 2063.

Variants of Modernization:

Walt Whitman Rostow (1916-2003) is one of the most popular economist for his concept of stages of economic growth. These are mentioned as below:

A)     Traditional Society:

-          Characterized by subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering; almost wholly a primary sector economy.

-          Limited technology

-          A static or rigid society, lack of class or individual economic mobility, with stability prioritized and change seen negatively.

B)     Pre-conditions to ‘take-off’:

-          External demand for raw materials initiates economic change.

-          Development of more productive, commercial agriculture and cash crops not consumed by producers and/or largely exported.

-          Widespread and enhanced investment in changes to the physical environment to expand production (i.e. irrigation, canal, ports)

-          Increasing spread of technology and advances in existing technologies.

-          Changing social mobility begins.

-          Development of National identity and shared economic interests.

C)     Take-off

-          Urbanization increases, Industrialization proceeds. Technological breakthrough occurs.

-          The ‘secondary’ (goods-producing) sector expands and ratio of secondary vs. primary sectors in the economy shifts quickly towards secondary.

-          Textiles and Apparel are usually the first ‘take-off’ industry, as happened is Great Britain’s classic ‘Industrial Revolution’.

D)     Drive to maturity

-          Diversification of the industrial base; multiple industries expand and new ones take roots quickly.

-          Manufacturing shifts from investment driven (capital goods) towards consumer durables and domestic consumption.

-          Rapid development of transportation infrastructure.

-          Large-scale investment in social infrastructure (schools, universities, hospitals etc.)

E)      Age of high mass consumption

-          The industrial base dominates economy; the primary sector is of greatly diminished weight in economy and society.

-          Widespread and normative consumption of high value consumer goods (e.g. automobiles)

-          Consumers typically (if not universally), have disposable income, beyond all basic needs, for additional goods.

Criticisms:

1)      Rostow is historical in the sense that the end result is known at the outset and is derived from the historical geography of a developed, bureaucratic society.

2)      Rostow is mechanical in the sense that the underlying motor of change is not disclosed and therefore the stages become little more than a classificatory system based on data from developed countries.

3)      His model is based on American and European history and defines the American norms of high mass consumption as integral to the economic development process of all industrialized societies.

4)      His model assumes the inevitable adoption of Neo liberal trade policies which allows the manufacturing base of a given advanced polity to be relocated to lower-wage regions.

5)      Rostow’s model doesn’t apply to the Asian and African countries as events in these countries are not justified in any stage of his model.

6)      The stages aren’t identifiable properly as the conditions of take-off and pre take-off stage are very similar and also overlap.

7)      According to Rostow, growth becomes automatic by the time it reaches the maturity stage but Kuznets asserts that no growth can be automatic, there is need for push always.

8)      There are two unrelated theories of take-off, one is that take is a sectorial and a non-liner notion and other is that it is highly aggregative.