Development: The Modernisation Paradigm

The modernisation paradigm was the dominant model adopted during the 1950s and 1960s. As described by Norman Long; modernisation isualises de elopment in terms o! a progressi e mo ement towards technologically more comple" and integrated !orms o! #modern$ society% &cited in 'ardner ( Lewis 1996). *he proponents o! this model belie ed that all nations were on the same de elopmental plane+ they argued that the poor *hird ,orld countries were at lesser stage o! de elopment than the richer ,estern% countries. -or .odernisers+ the solution to the problem o! unde eloped% nations lay in the spending o! !oreign capital to build in!rastructure &e.g. roads+ bridges etc.). /owe er+ they did recognise that the building o! in!rastructure was not enough in itsel!+ to impro e% these countries they also argued that ,estern nations0peoples were predisposed to succeed echoing ,eber%s idea o! the 1rotestant wor2 ethic. Any local ob3ections to de elopment were seen merely as obstacles to be o ercome.

Criticisms o 4t is an elitist theory o! culture &*uc2er 1995) o 4t is ethnocentric; assuming that the all countries will !ollow the same path o! de elopment o! ,estern nations. o 4t reduces the di ersity o! cultures and societies o! *hird ,orld countries to a single stereotype; i.e. they are poor+ traditional and irrational. o 4n many countries that ha e e"perienced economic growth+ po erty le els ha e remained the same+ some cases it has worsened. *his is because modernisation model is based on the idea o! tric2le down% growth and !ails to consider that di!!erent groups within societies will ine itably bene!it more than others. & *his di!!erentiation can also occur along gender lines)

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