Models of Development

Aim: Analyze various attempts to explain

patterns of development.

Do Now: Why are LDCs less developed than

MDCs?
 “If It Were My Home” Assignment
www.ifitweremyhome.com
• Scroll down to the alphabetical list of countries, and click on
each of your assigned countries.
• For each country, read through the data provided. For each of
the points, there is an arrow on the right for “more info” –
click on it and read the information provided.
• For each country, write about a page answer for the following
questions (two paragraphs total, minimum):
– In what ways does the data suggest this country is less developed than the
United States?
– In what ways does the data suggest this country is more developed than the
United States?
– What relevant information stands out the most or is the most surprising?
Explain.
 Rostow’s Development Model
• AKA Modernization Model
• Economist Walter Rostow – 1962
• Economic development was a process that all
regions of the world would go through and
experience in similar ways
• Associated with classical liberalism / capitalism
Rostow’s Five-Stage Process of Development
1. Traditional society – subsistence farming
– No countries are at this stage presently
2. Preconditions for takeoff – innovation paves the way
for development
3. Takeoff – industrialization / urbanization
4. Drive to maturity – technology diffuses and
advances; workers more skilled and educated
5. Age of high mass consumption – large middle class;
industrialization developed to the point where goods
and services are readily available and people don’t
have to worry about having their needs met
• MDC = Stage 4/5
 Critique of Rostow’s Model
• Not realistic to assume that countries develop in
isolation from one another
– Countries’ economies are actually linked
• E.g., If one country’s economy is based on services and
consumption, its food and manufactured goods are supplied
by another country
– Countries create obstacles for other countries’
development
• Assumes that high levels of mass consumption is
the development goal of every country
– Countries may prioritize other factors
• Political freedom
• Decent working conditions
 Structuralist Theory
• The world economy has a set of structural
circumstances that impede the development
possibilities for poor countries
– Wealth is concentrated in certain areas
– Relationships among places are unequal
–  LDCs are too dependent on trade with MDCs
• These structural conditions are difficult to
change
• Associated with the left
 Dependency Theory
• A structuralist theory of development
• Colonialism caused colonies to become dependent on
the colonial powers
• This enabled the colonial powers to become wealthy
at the expense of the colonized
– Resources exploited and depleted
• Dependency persists even after independence
• May overgeneralize: not all former colonies/colonizers
are the same
• Has a lot of overlap with…
World Systems Theory
(aka - the Core-Periphery Model)
…again
 Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory:
– Immanuel Wallerstein, a U.S. social scientist, posited a
world-systems analysis that unified the world economy
with developed countries forming an inner core area,
whereas developing countries occupy peripheral
locations.
– Developing countries in the periphery have less access to
the world center of consumption, communications,
wealth, and power, which are clustered in the core.
 Unevenness of Economic Development

1. Core

2. Semi-Periphery

3. Periphery

Regions with
Regions undeveloped
that or narrowly
dominate trade, controlspecialized
most
Regions economies
that are ablewith
to exploit peripheral
low levels regions
of productivity
advanced technologies, high levels of
but are themselves dominated by core regions
productivity and diversified economies
North-South Gap: Earth's six less developed regions are Latin
America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, and
Sub-Saharan Africa. The world's more developed regions are Anglo-
America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe, plus Japan and the South
Pacific.
 Rostow vs. Wallerstein
1. Explain three differences between Rostow’s
model and Wallerstein’s model.
2. Use one of the two models to explain the
level of economic development in either
Mexico or Brazil.
3. Give two examples of how the core-
periphery concept can be applied below the
national scale.
Barriers to and Costs of
Development
 Development Gap
• Widening difference between development
levels in MDCs and LDCs
• MDCs improving development levels faster
than LDCs
• GDP nearly tripled in MDCs over last decade,
but only doubled for LDCs
• Rate of population increase fell drastically for
MDCs but only slightly for LDCs
 Social Conditions
• Youth dependency ratio
• Poor nutrition
– Low life expectancy
– High IMR / CMR
• Poor sanitation
• Lack of access to
education
– Especially for girls
• Trafficking
Foreign Debt
Political Corruption and Instability
 Industrialization
• Export processing zones (EZPs)
Maquiladoras are an
example of EZPs
• Raw materials shipped
in; manufactured goods
shipped back
• No tariffs
• Began in 1965; increased
in the 1980s
• NAFTA increased even
more
• Location is significant
Agriculture
Tourism