Sociology of Development

Sociology of development
P.T. Robbins
SC3055, 2790055
2011
Undergraduate study in
Economics, Management,
Finance and the Social Sciences
This is an extract from a subject guide for an undergraduate course offered as part of the
University of London International Programmes in Economics, Management, Finance and
the Social Sciences. Materials for these programmes are developed by academics at the
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
For more information, see: www.londoninternational.ac.uk
This guide was prepared for the University of London International Programmes by:
P.T. Robbins, BSc(Econ), MSc(Econ), PhD, Lecturer in Sociology, Institute of Water and
Environment, Cranfield University.
Website: www.silsoe.cranfield.ac.uk/iwe/people/peterrobbins.htm
This is one of a series of subject guides published by the University. We regret that due to
pressure of work the author is unable to enter into any correspondence relating to, or arising
from, the guide. If you have any comments on this subject guide, favourable or unfavourable,
please use the form at the back of this guide.
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Published by: University of London

University of London 2001
Reprinted with minor revisions 2011
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Contents
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 1

What is the sociology of development? .......................................................................... 1
Aims ............................................................................................................................ 1
Learning outcomes ........................................................................................................ 1
How to use this subject guide ........................................................................................ 2
Theory and evidence ...................................................................................................... 3
Internal and external factors .......................................................................................... 4
Reading ........................................................................................................................ 4
Online study resources ................................................................................................. 11
Study time ................................................................................................................... 13
Examination guidance ................................................................................................. 13
Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation
theories of development ...................................................................................... 15
Essential reading ......................................................................................................... 15
Further reading............................................................................................................ 15
Learning outcomes ...................................................................................................... 15
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 16
Neo-evolutionism ....................................................................................................... 16
Responses to neo-evolutionary and modernisation theories .......................................... 19
Neo-modernisation theory .......................................................................................... 20
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 22
A reminder of your learning outcomes.......................................................................... 22
Sample examination questions ..................................................................................... 23
Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of development ............................ 25
Further reading............................................................................................................ 25
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 26
Classical Marxism ........................................................................................................ 26
Neo-Marxist theories of underdevelopment .................................................................. 28
Orthodox Marxist responses to neo-Marxism ................................................................ 30
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 32
Chapter 4: Global approaches to development ................................................... 35
Further reading............................................................................................................ 35
Introducing globalisation and development .................................................................. 36
The world-system approach ......................................................................................... 36
Globalisation of culture................................................................................................ 39
Global system.............................................................................................................. 40
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 43
i
55 Sociology of development
Chapter 5: Rural development ............................................................................. 45

Further reading............................................................................................................ 45
Introduction to rural development ................................................................................ 46
The differentiation perspective ..................................................................................... 48
Specific peasant economy ............................................................................................ 49
The transformation of the peasantry ............................................................................. 49
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 52
Chapter 6: Urban development ............................................................................ 53
Further reading............................................................................................................ 53
Learning outcomes ..................................................................................................... 53
Introducing urbanisation .............................................................................................. 54
Cities as theatres of capitalist accumulation ................................................................. 55
Urbanisation and the informal sector ........................................................................... 56
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 59
Chapter 7: The newly industrialising countries .................................................... 61
Further reading............................................................................................................ 61
Introducing the newly industrialising countries ............................................................. 62
Economic growth and development ............................................................................ 62
Paths of industrialisation in Latin American and East Asian newly industrialising
countries ..................................................................................................................... 63
Critics of the NICs model ............................................................................................. 64
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 65
Chapter 8: Political processes and social change ................................................. 67
Further reading............................................................................................................ 67
Introducing politics and development ........................................................................... 68
Bureaucratic-authoritarianism ...................................................................................... 69
The developmental state .............................................................................................. 71
Social classes in the transition to democracy................................................................. 72
The relative class power model of democratisation ....................................................... 73
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 74
Chapter 9: Women and development ................................................................... 77
Further reading............................................................................................................ 77
Introducing women and development .......................................................................... 78
ii
Contents
Liberal feminism and development ............................................................................... 78

Marxist feminism ......................................................................................................... 79
Radical feminism ......................................................................................................... 80
Women and the globalisation of production ................................................................. 81
Does industrial employment liberate Third World women? ............................................ 83
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 84
Chapter 10: Alternative approaches to development .......................................... 87
Further reading............................................................................................................ 87
Alternatives to capitalist development .......................................................................... 88
From sustainable development to post-development .................................................... 91
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 93
Appendix: Sample examination paper ................................................................. 95
Preparing for the examination...................................................................................... 98
iii
Notes
iv
Chapter 1: Introduction
What is the sociology of development?
The sociology of development is concerned with understanding the
ways in which people in poorer countries try to improve the quality of
their lives. As such it is an important and evolving area of investigation.
Studying the sociology of development will allow you to understand the
world in a more global context, and will give you the tools to analyse
solutions put forward by policymakers who are making decisions about
poorer countries. Since the leaders of most poorer, or developing
countries try to raise standards of living by industrialising, the sociology
of development tends to look at the social and political effects of this
economic process. In this guide, we will examine theories that try to
explain development and look at specific examples from developing
countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. This chapter reviews the aims
and learning outcomes of the course, as well as its main texts, journals
and resource materials. It also provides you with study guidance for the
examination paper including ideas for answering specific questions, and
tips on how to do well on the exam.
If taken as part of a BSc degree, you must have passed 21 Principles of
sociology before attempting this course.
Aims
The purpose of this subject guide is to help prepare you for the 55
Sociology of development examination paper. The aim of this is to
show you how sociological theories and concepts can be used to examine
the problems of development and underdevelopment in general, and the
problems of industrialisation, in particular, in the countries of the Third
World (also referred to as developing societies). The main theories of
development and underdevelopment will be evaluated in the light of some
of the empirical research that has been carried out on, and in, Third World
countries.
This course is designed to:
enable you to place the sociology of development within the overall
study of sociology and other subjects you are studying
introduce you to a variety of theoretical models that can be critically
examined in relation to different cases of development
provide you with the tools necessary to make a sociological analysis of
the main issues of the sociology of the development to which you are
likely to be exposed through the mass media, personal connections and
travel.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, and having completed the Essential reading and
activities, you should be able to:
describe the main theories and concepts in the sociology of
development
explain the connections between these theories and concepts and
selected cases of development
1
demonstrate that you have developed independent critical facilities

based on careful examination of the study materials.
How to use this subject guide

The subject guide must be used along with at least one of the
recommended textbooks. Most chapters begin with Essential reading
drawn from these texts. This will be followed by a list of further reading
that will cover additional materials either not covered at all or not dealt
with extensively in the essential readings. All chapters include a number
of activities designed to help you to:
focus your study on the key issues within each topic
apply what you are learning to concrete examples of Third World
development.
Each chapter will conclude with a set of learning outcomes, which will
help to assure you that you have studied the chapter materials effectively.
There is no one way to learn the material in this course; a great deal
depends on your own study habits and preferences. Some students may
find it useful to scan the entire guide first to get an overview of the
subject, then work through the chapters one by one from beginning to
end. Others may prefer to work on the chapters that focus on problems
of development (Chapters 510) first, then read the more theoreticallyoriented chapters (Chapters 24). The guide has been written assuming
that you will work through the guide from beginning to end, but this will
not necessarily suit all of you.
Chapter 1 of the guide reviews the aims and outcomes of the course,
and signposts the structure of each chapter so you can use it as a study
tool. It also covers the main texts, journals and resource materials for
the course, and gives study guidance.
Chapter 2 begins the exploration of theories of development by
comparing and contrasting neo-evolutionary, modernisation theories
of development, which were first prominent in the 1960s. It also
discusses the emergence of neo-modernisation theory in light of the
success of the East Asian newly industrialising countries and the fall of
the Soviet Union.
Chapter 3 looks at Marxist theories of development. The chapter
traces the growth of the Marxist development perspective from its
roots in classical Marxism, to Lenins theory of imperialism, which
later informed neo-Marxist underdevelopment theory in the 1970s
and 1980s, such as dependency and world-system theory. This
is followed by an examination of the orthodox Marxist mode of
production response to underdevelopment, including the work of
Laclau and Warren. The chapter also considers some of the empirical
investigations based on the theories.
Chapter 4 examines global approaches to development. It emphasises
the importance of understanding the role of the transnational
corporation (TNC) in global theories, including those theories that
prioritise economic, political or cultural factors. Examples of some
of these perspectives are considered, including global system, global
commodity chains, global politics and global culture. The chapter lays
particular emphasis on the importance of understanding processes
and groups that contribute as well as resist globalisation in the Third
World.
2
Chapter 5 moves away from theories of development, to some of the

problems that these theories can inform. The chapter investigates key
issues in rural development. The focus is on understanding the spread
of capitalist agriculture and the decline of numbers of peasants in rural
areas of the Third World. It also looks at peasant society and peasants
role in social change.
Chapter 6 examines theories and processes of urbanisation in the
Third World. It emphasises the rapid growth of cities, and looks at the
social problems associated with urban expansion in relation to specific
case studies. It also considers the economic aspects of urbanisation,
including the growth of the informal economic sector, and the role of
Third World cities as the local centres of global capitalism.
Chapter 7 compares economic and social aspects of the development
paths of Latin American and East Asian newly industrialising countries
(NICs). Furthermore, it considers the strengths and weaknesses of the
NICs development, and the extent to which they provide a model to
other Third World countries of how to develop.
Chapter 8 looks at political processes and social change in developing
countries. Specifically it considers the link between the economy and
politics in the Third World. Areas examined include the theory of
the developmental state, the role of social classes in bringing about
change, authoritarianism and development, and re-democratisation in
the Third World.
Chapter 9 examines the ways in which various versions of feminist
theory and research have informed the sociology of development.
It also evaluates social aspects of the role of women workers in the
industrialisation processes of Third World countries.
Chapter 10, the final chapter, investigates alternatives to development.
Areas highlighted are the socialist path to development, including
case studies of Tanzania, Mozambique, Cuba and China. The other
issues considered are sustainable development, the extent to which
environmental issues can be linked with development objectives in the
Third World, and the anti- or post- development debate which is a
critique of the whole notion of development.
Theory and evidence

The guide covers aspects of theory and evidence in the sociology of
development that are very much interrelated. Chapters 2 to 4 examine
the major theoretical approaches in the sociology of development
relevant to the processes of industrialisation, in order to familiarise you
with some basic concepts and debates. Chapters 5 to 10 consider some
substantive problems of development that have been raised as a result
of the theoretical debates and their application to issues in Third World
societies. Even though a chapter may be dealing with a theory or problem
of development, keep in mind that:
All useful theories in the sociology of development point to the
empirical research necessary to confirm or disconfirm them.
All useful empirical research in the sociology of development serves to
confirm or disconfirm one theory or another.
Each chapter reviews some of the most salient aspects of the topic, and
while you are advised to consult the essential reading for each chapter, it
is understood that you will make a selection from these along with some
relevant further reading for detailed study and exam preparation.
3
Internal and external factors

The course encourages you to evaluate the extent to which problems
of development can be solved within the context of specific societies. It
also considers the extent to which solutions to problems depend upon
the external factors, principally the position of each country in the
world economy. It is certainly possible that some types of problems are
better approached in terms of the internal structures and dynamics of a
particular society, such as relations between classes, while other types
of problems are better approached through the study of the effects of
external agents.
Reading
Essential reading
The syllabus is not based on a single textbook, but there are four books
that between them cover all of the main themes of the course. These are:
Harrison, D. The Sociology of Modernisation and Development. (London:
Macmillan, 1988) [ISBN 9780415078702]. This very clearly written book
presents the main theories in the sociology of development and the criticisms
of them. It is possibly the most accessible textbook on development theories
for the beginning student and it has an extensive bibliography.
Roberts, T.J. and A. Hite (eds) From Modernisation to Globalisation: Perspectives
on Development and Social Change. (London: Blackwell, 2000)
[ISBN 9780631210979]. This is a good edited collection of key readings in
the sociology of development.
Sklair, L. (ed.) Capitalism and Development. (London: Routledge, 1994)
[ISBN 9780415075473]. This book of original essays covers most of the
topics in the course.
Sklair, L. Sociology of the Global System. (London: Prentice-Hall, 1995)
[ISBN 9780134329642]. This is a critical discussion of how capitalism
works transnationally, with special emphasis on the global effects of
transnational corporations, classes and consumerism. It discusses, although
sometimes quite briefly, all of the development issues raised in the subject
and has an extensive bibliography.
Smith, D. Third World Cities in Global Perspective: The Political Economy of
Uneven Urbanisation. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1995)
[ISBN 9780813387208].
You are advised to read these books carefully.

Detailed reading references in this subject guide refer to the editions
of the set textbooks listed above. New editions of one or more of these
textbooks may have been published by the time you study this course.
You can use a more recent edition of any of the books; use the detailed
chapter and section headings and the index to identify relevant readings.
Also check the virtual learning environment (VLE) regularly for updated
guidance on readings.
There are, of course, many other textbooks, case studies and books of
readings in the sociology of development that discuss some of the issues
raised in the course, but no single one covers all the issues. A selection of
these is listed under the heading General introductions in the next section.
You may choose to substitute one or two of these books for the two texts
recommended above for careful study and purchase. You are also strongly
advised to complement this textbook reading with readings from the
books and articles that are cited in the Further reading for each topic. The
reading lists are deliberately long because books and articles are often
4
difficult to find and the more alternative readings there are, the more
likely it is that you will find something of relevance to the topic. Sample
examination questions, activities, and learning outcomes are also given
in each chapter and this should help you to organise your reading and
study. If you cannot get hold of any essential item, it is still worth reading
other items, especially those whose titles are similar to the essential items.
You are encouraged to follow your own interests in deciding which Third
World countries to study.
General introductions
Please note that as long as you read the Essential reading you are then
free to read around the subject area in any text, paper or online resource.
You will need to support your learning by reading as widely as possible
and by thinking about how these principles apply in the real world. To
help you read extensively, you have free access to the VLE and University
of London Online Library (see below).
You are advised to read one or two of these books, either in addition to or
as substitutes for the two recommended texts discussed above. All these
books are useful as textbooks for one or more parts of the course and all
are very worthwhile to read. All the books are identified by ISBN numbers
(at the end of each reference).
Alavi, H. and T. Shanin (eds) Introduction to the Sociology of Developing
Societies. (London: Macmillan, 1982) [ISBN 0333275024]. This is the
first volume of a series of books of readings, mostly reprinted material, on
development. Several other regional volumes have been published.
Cohen, R. and P. Kennedy Global Sociology. (London: Macmillan, 2000)
[ISBN 033365112X]. This textbook provides a very accessible introduction
to, and overview of many theories and examples relevant to development,
focusing on globalisation.
Hopkins, T. and I. Wallerstein The Age of Transition. (London: Zed, 1996)
[ISBN 185649439X]. This is a collection of essays on how the world-system
perspective can be applied to a variety of topics in development.
Kamrava, M. Politics and Society in the Third World. (London: Routledge, 1993)
[ISBN 0415090482]. A lively, introductory book, with a focus on political
problems in developing societies.
McMichael, P. Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective. (London:
Pine Forge Press, 1996) [ISBN 0803990669]. The book is uniquely
organised and offers a useful connection of contemporary themes in
globalisation and development.
Preston, P.W. Development Theory: An Introduction. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996)
[ISBN 0631195556]. The textbook is a helpful introduction to the main
theories and cases in the sociology of development, linking them to their
roots in social theory.
Rahnema, M. and V. Bawtree (eds) The Post-Development Reader. (London: Zed,
1997) [ISBN 1856494748]. The reader looks at development issues from
the perspective of the post-development critique.
Webster, A. Introduction to the Sociology of Development. (London: Macmillan,
1990) [ISBN 0333371291]. This is the second edition of a book first
published in 1984. It provides a lucid introduction to development.
Further reading
Abu-Lughod, J. and R. Hay (eds) Third World Urbanisation. (London: Methuen,
1977) [ISBN 0416601413].
Araghi, F. Global Depeasantisation, 19451990 in Sociological Quarterly 36
1997, pp.33768.
Armstrong, W. and T. McGee Theatres of Accumulation: Studies in Asian and Latin
American Urbanisation. (London: Methuen, 1985) [ISBN 0426398006].
5
Bandarage, A. Women in Development in Development and Change 15 1984,
pp.495515.
Baran, P. The Political Economy of Growth. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973)
[ISBN 0141214658].
Beneria, L. and S. Feldman (eds) Unequal Burden. (Boulder, Colorado:
Westview, 1992) [ISBN 0813382297] especially chapters by Safa and
Antrobus, McFarren, Tripp and Perez-Aleman.
Berger, P. and H-H.M. Hsiao In Search of An East Asian Development Model.
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988) [ISBN 0887381499].
Bernstein, H. et al. The Food Question: Profits versus People? (London:
Earthscan, 1990) [ISBN 1853830631].
Boserup, E. Womens Role in Economic Development. (London: Gower, (1970)
1986) [ISBN 0566051397].
Brenner, R. The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of neo-Smithian
Marxism in New Left Review 104(July/August) 1977, pp.2792.
Brewer, A. Marxist Theories of Imperialism. (London: Routledge, 1990) second
edition [ISBN 0415044693] Chapters 2, 7 and 8.
Brydon, L. and S. Chant Women in the Third World. (London: Edward Elgar,
1989) [ISBN 1852781904].
Cammack, P. et al. Third World Politics. (London: Macmillan, 1993)
[ISBN 0333594673].
Cardoso, Fernando H. and E. Faletto Dependency and Development in Latin
America. (London: University of California Press, 1978)
[ISBN 0520035275].
Cole, K. Cuba: From Revolution to Development. (London: Pinter, 1998)
[ISBN 1855675021].
Corbridge, S. (ed.) Development Studies: a reader. (London: Edward Arnold,
1995) [ISBN 0340614528] Section 2 and Chapters 2 and 3 are of particular
interest.
Cotton, J. From authoritarianism to democracy in South Korea in Political
Studies 37(June) 1989, pp.24459.
Crenshaw, E.M. et al. Demographic Transition in Ecological Focus in American
Sociological Review 65(3) 2000, pp.37191.
Das, A. (ed.)Agrarian Movements in India: Studies on twentieth century Bihar
in Journal of Peasant Studies (1982) 9(April): whole issue.
Desai, A.R. (ed.) Peasant Struggles in India. (Bombay: Oxford University Press,
1979) [ISBN 0195608038].
DiMaggio, P. Culture and Economy in Smelser, N. and R. Swedberg The
Handbook of Economic Sociology. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1994) [ISBN 0691034486].
Dixon, C. Rural Development in the Third World. (London: Routledge, 1990)
[ISBN 0415015979].
Duncan, K. and I. Rutledge (eds) Land and Labour in Latin America.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978) [ISBN 0521212065].
Eisenstadt, S.N. Modernisation: Protest and Change. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 1966).
Elson, D. and D. Pearson Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers: An Analysis of
Womens Employment in Third World Export Manufacturing in Feminist
Review Spring 1981, pp.87107.
Elson, D. (ed.) Male bias in the development process. (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1991) [ISBN 0719025559].
Escobar, A. Imagining a Post-Development Era in Crush, J. Power of
Development. (London: Routledge, 1995) [ISBN 0415111773].
Evans, P. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995) [ISBN 0691037361].
Evans, P. Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State and Local
Capital in Brazil. (London: Princeton University Press, 1979)
[ISBN 0691021856].
6
Evans, P., D. Rueschemeyer and T. Skocpol Bringing the State Back In.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) [ISBN 0521313139].
Featherstone, M. Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalisation and Modernity.
(London: Sage, 1990) [ISBN 0803983220]. See especially the chapters by
Featherstone, Robertson, Wallerstein and Boyne, Bergesen and King.
Fernandez-Kelly, M.P. For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry on
Mexicos Northern Frontier. (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1983) [ISBN 0873957180].
Forbes, D. and N. Thrift (eds) The Socialist Third World. (Oxford: Blackwell,
1987) [ISBN 0631134425].
Forster, P. and S. Maghimbi (eds) The Tanzanian Peasantry: Economy in Crisis.
(Aldershot: Avebury, 1992) [ISBN 1856281558].
Frank, A.G. Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment. (London:
Macmillan, 1978) [ISBN 0333239504].
Frank, A.G. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America.
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969) [ISBN 0853450935].
Fuentes, A. and B. Ehrenreich Women in the Global Factory. (Boston,
Massachusetts: South End Press, 1983) [ISBN 0896081982].
Gereffi, G. Capitalism, Development and Global Commodity Chains in Sklair,
L. (ed.) Capitalism and Development. (London: Routledge, 1994)
[ISBN 0415075475].
Gilbert, A. and J. Gugler Cities, Poverty and Development. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1992) second edition [ISBN 0198741618].
Goodman, D. and M. Redclift From Peasant to Proletarian. (Oxford: Blackwell,
1981) [ISBN 0312307799].
Gosling, R.A. et al. Introduction to Sociology. (London: University of London
International Programmes, 1997) [ISBN 07187 12145].
Griffin, K. Land Concentration and Rural Poverty. (New York: Holmes and Meier,
1981) [ISBN 0841905266].
Gugler, J. (ed.) The Urbanisation of the Third World. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1988) [ISBN 0198232608].
Guha, R. The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the
Himalayas. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) [ISBN 0195622081].
Gusfield, J. Tradition and Modernity: Misplaced Polarities in American Journal
of Sociology 72 1967, pp.35162.
Halebsky, S. et al. (eds) Cuba in Transition: Crisis and Transformation. (Boulder,
Colorado: Westview, 1993) [ISBN 0813380952].
Hall, S., et al. Modernity and Its Futures. (London: Polity/Open University,
1992) [ISBN 074560966X]. See especially Chapters 2 and 6.
Harrison, D. Tourism, Capitalism and Development in Less Developed
Countries in Sklair, L. (ed.) Capitalism and Development. (London:
Routledge, 1994) [ISBN 9780415075473].
Harriss, J. Rural Development: Theories of Peasant Economy and Agrarian
Change. (London: Hutchinson, 1982) [ISBN 0091447917].
Hewitt, T., H. Johnson and D. Wield Industrialisation and Development. (Oxford:
Oxford/Open University Press, 1992) [ISBN 0198773331].
Higley, J. and R. Gunther (eds) Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin
America and Southern Europe. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992) [ISBN 0521424224] Chapters 1 and 12.
Im, Hyug Baeg The Rise of Bureaucratic Authoritarianism in South Korea in
World Politics 39 (January) 1987.
Ingelhart, R. and W. Baker Modernisation, Cultural Change, and the Persistence
of Traditional Values in American Sociological Review 65(February) 2000
pp.1951.
Kiernan, V.G. Marxism and Imperialism. (London: Edward Arnold, 1974)
[ISBN 0713157658].
Kim, Kyong-Dong, Confucianism and Capitalist Development in East Asia in
Sklair, L. Capitalism and Development. (London: Routledge, 1994)
[ISBN 9780415075473].
Kreutzmann, H. From Modernisation Theory Towards the Clash of
Civilisations: Directions and Paradigm Shifts in Samuel Huntingtons
Analysis and Prognosis of Global Development in Geojournal 46, 1998
pp.25565.
Laclau, E. Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America in New Left Review 67
1971, pp.1938.
Leacock, E. and H. Safa (eds) Womens Work: Development and the Division of
Labor by Gender. (South Hadley: Bergin and Garvey, 1985)
[ISBN 0897890361].
Lechner, F. and J. Boli The Globalisation Reader. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)
[ISBN 0631214771].
Lehman, D.A. Theory of Agrarian Structure: Typology and Paths of Transformation
in Latin America. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).
Lerner, D. The Passing of Traditional Society. (New York: Free Press, 1968)
[ISBN 9780029185803].
Leys, C. Underdevelopment and Dependency: Critical Notes in Journal of
Contemporary Asia 7(1) 1977, pp.92107.
Lim, L. Womens work in Export Factories: the Politics of a Cause in Tinker, I.
(ed.) Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990) [ISBN 0195061586].
Lim, T.C. Power, Capitalism, and the Authoritarian State in South Korea in
Journal of Contemporary Asia 28(4) 1998, pp.45783.
Lloyd, P. A Third World Proletariat. (London: Allen and Unwin, 1982)
[ISBN 0043011411].
Mainwaring, S. et al. (eds) Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The New South
American Democracies in Comparative Perspective. (London: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1992) [ISBN 0268012105].
Margold, J. Reformulating the Compliant Image: Filipina Activists in the Global
Factory in Urban Anthropology 28(1) 1999, pp.135.
Meadows, D. et al. Beyond the Limits: Global Collapse or a Sustainable Future.
(London: Earthscan, 1992) [ISBN 185383131X].
Meyer, W. Transnational Media and Third World Development: The Structure and
Impact of Imperialism. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988)
[ISBN 0313262640].
Mies, M. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the
International Division of Labour. (London: Zed Press, 1998)
[ISBN 1856497356].
Mitter, S. Common Fate, Common Bond: Women in the Global Economy.
(London: Pluto Press, 1986) [ISBN 074530026X].
Miyoshi, M. A Borderless World? From Colonialism to Transnationalism and the
Decline of the Nation-State in Critical Inquiry Summer 1993, pp.72651.
Moore, B. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1967) [ISBN 9780140550863].
Mouzelis, N. Politics in the Semi-periphery. (London: Macmillan, 1986)
[ISBN 0333349342].
Nanda, M. Who Needs Post-Development? Discourses of Difference, Green
Revolution and Agrarian Populism in India in Journal of Developing Societies
April XV(1) 1999, pp.531.
Nash, J. and M. Fernandez-Kelly Women, Men, and the International Division of
Labor. (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1983) [ISBN 0873956842].
Nelson, N. (ed.) African Women in the Development Process. (London: Cass,
1981) [ISBN 0714640328]. This is a book version of a special issue of the
Journal of Development Studies 17(3) 1981.
Ng, C. Positioning Women in Malaysia: Class and Gender in an Industrialising
State. (London: Macmillan, 1999) [ISBN 0333719220].
8
ODonnell, G. Modernisation and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism. (London:
University of California Press, 1973) [ISBN 0877252092].
ODonnell, G., et al. (eds) Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Latin America.
(London: John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1986)
[ISBN 0801831881].
Omvedt, G. The New Peasant Movement in India in Bulletin of Concerned
Asian Scholars (1988) 20(2).
Paige, J. Agrarian Revolution. (New York: Free Press, 1978)
[ISBN 0029235502].
Parpart, J. Postmodernism, Gender and Development in Crush, J. Power of
Development. (London: Routledge, 1995) [ISBN 0415111773].
Parsons, T. The Evolution of Societies. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1977) [ISBN 132936399X].
Perlman, J. The Myth of Marginality. (London: University of California Press,
1976) [ISBN 0520039521].
Perlmutter, A. and V. Bennett (eds) The Political Influence of the Military: A
Comparative Reader. (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1980)
[ISBN 0300022301]. See the introduction and Part II.
Peterson, V. and A. Runyan Global Gender Issues. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview,
1999) second edition [ISBN 0813368529].
Phillips, A. The Concept of Development in Review of African Political Economy
8(JanuaryApril) 1977, pp.720.
Portes, A. and M. Castells (eds) The Informal Sector. (Baltimore, Maryland:
John Hopkins University Press, 1989) [ISBN 0801837367].
Post, K. and P. Wright Socialism and Underdevelopment. (London: Routledge,
1989) [ISBN 0415016282].
Redclift, M. Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions. (London:
Methuen, 1987) [ISBN 0416902405].
Reeves, G. Communications and the Third World. (London: Routledge, 1993)
[ISBN 0415047625].
Rostow, W.W. The Stages of Economic Growth. (Cambridge: Cambridge
Rueschemeyer, D., E. Stephens and J. Stephens Capitalist Development and
Democracy. (Cambridge: Polity, 1992) [ISBN 0745609457]. See especially
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.
Sachs, W. (ed.) The Development Dictionary. (London: Zed Press, 1992)
[ISBN 1856490440].
Sandbrook, R. The Politics of Basic Needs. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1982) [ISBN 0802064396].
Scott, C. Gender and Development: Rethinking Modernisation and Dependency
Theory. (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 1995) [ISBN 155587410X].
Scott, J. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. (London:
Yale University Press, 1985) [ISBN 0300033362].
Scott, J.C. The Moral Economy of the Peasantry: Subsistence and Rebellion in
Southeast Asia. (London: Yale University Press, 1976) [ISBN 0300018622].
Sender, J. and S. Smith The Development of Capitalism in Africa. (London:
Methuen, 1986) [ISBN 0416377408].
Shanin, T. (ed.) Peasants and Peasant Societies. (London: Penguin, 1988)
[ISBN 0140220524].
Shannon, T.R. An Introduction to the World-System Perspective. (London:
Westview, 1989) [ISBN 0813307953].
Shepherd, A.W. Sustainable Rural Development. (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998)
[ISBN 033368485X].
Short, J. and Y-H. Kim Globalisation and the City. (London: Longman, 1999)
[ISBN 0582369126].
Sklair, L. Sociology of the Global System. (Maryland: John Hopkins University
Press, 1995) [ISBN 0801852110].
9
Sklair, L. The Transnational Capitalist Class. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001)
[ISBN 0631224629] Chapters 13 and 7.
Skocpol, T. States and Social Revolutions. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1979) [ISBN 0521294991].
Stavrianos, L.S. Global Rift: The Third World Comes of Age. (New York: William
Morrow, 1981) [ISBN 0688006574].
Stockman, N. Understanding Chinese Society. (Cambridge: Polity, 2000)
[ISBN 0745617360].
The RuralUrban Divide: Journal of Development Studies (1984) 20(3).
Theobold, R. Corruption, Development and Underdevelopment. (London:
Macmillan, 1990) [ISBN 033353154X].
Torp, J., L. Denny and D. Ray Mozambique, So Tom and Principe. (London:
Pinter, 1989) [ISBN 0861874331].
Wallerstein, I. The Modern World-System. Volume 1 (London: Academic Press,
1974) [ISBN 0127859209].
1980) [ISBN 0127859241].
1989) [ISBN 012785925X].
Wallerstein, I. The Capitalist World Economy. (Cambridge: Cambridge
Warren, B. Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialism in New Left Review 81,
1973, pp.944.
Warren, B. Imperialism, Pioneer of Capitalism. (London: Verso, 1980) [ISBN
0860917320].
White, G. Riding the Tiger: The Politics of Economic Reform. (London:
Macmillan, 1993) [ISBN 0333454812].
Wolf, E. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. (London: Faber, 1971)
[ISBN 0571096115].
Specialised sources of data and discussion

World Bank World Development Report. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, yearly
since 1976).
Volumes are issue-based, and each one has the World Development
Indicators tables, ranking most of the countries of the world by gross
national product per capita on various indicators. A great deal of the data
and analysis from the most recent reports is now available on the World
Banks website, see below.
United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] Human Development Report
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, yearly since 1991).
An alternative source of analysis and data, focusing less on economic and

more on human development indicators. Again, see the UNDPs website,
listed below, for information from the latest reports.
Journals
Much of the best and most useful reading on questions raised in the
course is published in academic journals. Most of these journals have
excellent book review sections where you will find critical discussions of
the most recent books on development.
The list that follows gives details of the most important journals:
Bulletin of Latin American Research.
Development and Change.
Economic Development and Cultural Change.
Journal of Development Studies.
10
Journal of Peasant Studies.
Latin American Research Review.
Review of African Political Economy.
World Development.
Finally, the monthly magazine:

New Internationalist is written for a wide audience and has a great deal of
up-to-date news about changes in the developing world.
Online study resources

In addition to the subject guide and the Essential reading, it is crucial that
you take advantage of the study resources that are available online for this
course, including the VLE and the Online Library.
You can access the VLE, the Online Library and your University of London
email account via the Student Portal at:
http://my.londoninternational.ac.uk
You should have received your login details for the Student Portal with
your official offer, which was emailed to the address that you gave
on your application form. You have probably already logged in to the
Student Portal in order to register! As soon as you registered, you will
automatically have been granted access to the VLE, Online Library and
your fully functional University of London email account.
If you forget your login details at any point, please email uolia.support@
london.ac.uk quoting your student number.
The VLE
The VLE, which complements this subject guide, has been designed to
enhance your learning experience, providing additional support and a
sense of community. It forms an important part of your study experience
with the University of London and you should access it regularly.
The VLE provides a range of resources for EMFSS courses:
Self-testing activities: Doing these allows you to test your own
understanding of subject material.
Electronic study materials: The printed materials that you receive from
the University of London are available to download, including updated
reading lists and references.
Past examination papers and Examiners commentaries: These provide
advice on how each examination question might best be answered.
A student discussion forum: This is an open space for you to discuss
interests and experiences, seek support from your peers, work
collaboratively to solve problems and discuss subject material.
Videos: There are recorded academic introductions to the subject,
interviews and debates and, for some courses, audio-visual tutorials
and conclusions.
Recorded lectures: For some courses, where appropriate, the sessions
from previous years Study Weekends have been recorded and made
available.
Study skills: Expert advice on preparing for examinations and
developing your digital literacy skills.
Feedback forms.
11
Some of these resources are available for certain courses only, but we
are expanding our provision all the time and you should check the VLE
regularly for updates.
Making use of the Online Library

The Online Library contains a huge array of journal articles and other
resources to help you read widely and extensively.
To access the majority of resources via the Online Library you will either
need to use your University of London Student Portal login details, or you
will be required to register and use an Athens login:
http://tinyurl.com/ollathens
The easiest way to locate relevant content and journal articles in the
Online Library is to use the Summon search engine.
If you are having trouble finding an article listed in a reading list, try
removing any punctuation from the title, such as single quotation marks,
question marks and colons.
For further advice, please see the online help pages:
www.external.shl.lon.ac.uk/summon/about.php
Websites
Development agencies and groups
Increasingly, there is much useful and current information available on the
worldwide web. A number of these sites are aimed at people logging on
from developing countries, and would support older web browsers.
Unless otherwise stated, all websites in this subject guide were accessed in
April 2011. We cannot guarantee, however, that they will stay current and
you may need to perform an internet search to find the relevant pages.
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org
Baby Milk Action: www.babymilkaction.org
Corporate Watch: www.corpwatch.org
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN):
www.dawn.org.fj
Global Exchange: www.globalexchange.org
Hoover Institute: www-hoover.stanford.edu
Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First): www.foodfirst.org
Institute for International Economics: www.iie.com
Inter-American Development Bank: www.iadb.org
The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development:
www.ichrdd.ca
International Development Network: Sources: www.idn.org
International Institute for Sustainable Development: www.iisd.ca
International Labour Organisation: www.ilo.org
International Monetary Fund: www.imf.org
Multinational Monitor: www.essential.org/monitor
One World: www.oneworld.net
Overseas Development Council: www.odc.org
Pan-American Health Organisation: www.paho.org
Rainforest Action Network: www.ran.org
Sustainable Development and the Americas: www.txinfinet.com/mader/
ecotravel/sustain.html
Third World Network: www.twnside.org.sg
UNICEF: www.unicef.org
12
United Nations: www.un.org/
United Nations Development Programme: www.undp.org
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):
www.unesco.org/
US Agency for International Development: www.info.usaid.gov
UT-LANIC: Latin American Resources: www.lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/
development
The World Bank: www.worldbank.org
World Health Organisation: www.who.org
World Resources Institute: www.wri.org
World Trade Organisation: www.wto.org
World Wildlife Fund: www.wwf.or
Study time
In managing your study timetable, you should keep in mind that this
course should take about 100 hours, or 10 hours per week for 10 weeks.
This includes time reading the chapters, becoming familiar with the
Essential and Further reading, and completing exercises. The time you
take to complete the course may be more or less than this estimate,
however the guide is written with this time commitment in mind. Ideally,
each week you should spend an hour or two reading and reviewing the
subject guide, and about eight to nine hours reading, taking notes and
completing exercises.
Examination guidance
Important: the information and advice given here are based on the
examination structure used at the time this guide was written. Please
note that subject guides may be used for several years. Because of this
we strongly advise you to always check both the current Regulations for
relevant information about the examination, and the VLE where you
should be advised of any forthcoming changes. You should also carefully
check the rubric/instructions on the paper you actually sit and follow
those instructions.
In the examination, you will be required to answer three questions from
around eleven possible choices in three hours. At the end of this guide,
you will find an appendix with a Sample examination paper, and some
ideas about how you could tackle specific questions. The ideas are not
model answers. They are intended to give you some tips on how to
prepare for your examination and how to approach the types of questions
you will be asked. They represent a minimum framework within which
you can show the Examiners that you have read relevant material and
that you have organised your thinking on your chosen topics. There
is, of course, always room for you to demonstrate your own original
approaches, ideas and use of materials you have found for yourself. As
long as these are well argued and relevant to the question asked, you will
get extra marks.
Remember, it is important to check the VLE for:
up-to-date information on examination and assessment arrangements
for this course
where available, past examination papers and Examiners commentaries
for the course which give advice on how each question might best be
answered.
13
Notes
14
Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation theories of development
Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary,
modernisation and neo-modernisation
theories of development
Essential reading
Roberts, T.J. and A. Hite (eds) From Modernisation to Globalisation: Perspectives
on Development and Social Change. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000) [ISBN
0631210970] pp.81156.
Further reading
Berger, P. and H-H.M. Hsiao In Search of an East Asian Development Model.
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988) [ISBN 0887381499].
Crenshaw, E.M. et al. Demographic Transition in Ecological Focus in American
Sociological Review 65(3) 2000, pp.37191.
Di Maggio, P. Culture and Economy in Smelser, N. and R. Swedberg The
Handbook of Economic Sociology. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1994) [ISBN 0691034486].
Eisenstadt, S.N. Modernisation: Protest and Change. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 1966).
Gusfield, J. Tradition and Modernity: misplaced polarities in American Journal
of Sociology 72 1967, pp.35162.
Harrison, D. The Sociology of Modernisation and Development. (London:
Macmillan, 1988) [ISBN 0043012213].
Ingelhart, R. and W. Baker Modernisation, Cultural change, and the Persistence
of Traditional Values in American Sociological Review 65 (February) 2000,
pp.1951.
Kim, Kyong-Dong Confucianism and Capitalist Development in East Asia in
Sklair, L. Capitalism and Development. (London: Routledge, 1994)
[ISBN 0415075475].
Kreutzmann, H. From Modernisation Theory Towards the Clash of
Civilisations: Directions and Paradigm Shifts in Samuel Huntingtons
Analysis and Prognosis of Global Development in Geojournal 46 1998,
pp.25565.
Lerner, D. The Passing of Traditional Society. (New York: Free Press, 1968)
[ISBN 9780029185803].
Moore, B. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1967) [ISBN 9780140550863].
Parsons, T. The Evolution of Societies. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1977) [ISBN 0132936399].
[ISBN 0631195556] Chapter 9.
Rostow, W.W. The Stages of Economic Growth. (Cambridge: Cambridge
Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter, and having completed the Essential readings
and activities, you should be able to:
describe modernisation, neo-evolutionary and neo-modernisation
discuss the strengths and limitations of these theories.
15
Introduction
In this chapter we consider neo-evolutionist, modernisation and neomodernisation theories of development.1 We also look at the resurgence
of modernisation theory in light of the success of the East Asian newly
industrialising countries. Neo-evolutionist and Modernisation theories in
general refer to a variety of perspectives applied by non-Marxists to the
Third World in the 1950s and 1960s. The roots of many of these theories
were in classical sociological theories of social change, such as the ideas of
Emile Durkheim, which had been greatly influenced by nineteenth century
evolutionary thought, for example, the work of Charles Darwin.
The theories reviewed

in Chapters 2 and 3 deal
with social change. Read
Section B of Gosling
(1997) if you need to
refresh your memory
on the main theories in
this area.
Evolutionary theories were seen as being able to explain how the First
World (North America and Europe) progressed over time into modern
industrial societies. The important part of the link with nineteenth century
theories of evolution was the view that societies evolved. Furthermore,
this process was a good thing: it was natural and it was inevitable.
Blockages in evolution, why some societies developed, and others did
not, therefore needed more explanation than the process of evolution
itself. Modernisation theories tried to explain and predict how Third
World countries might become modern. It is worth making the distinction
between modernisation theories in general and neo-evolutionist theories,
which can be seen as closely related to, but not identical to, modernisation
theories. Neo-evolutionism was developed by the US sociologist, Talcott
Parsons, and by others associated with the school of thought that he
created, specifically Smelser and Eisenstadt.
Neo-evolutionism
The basic argument of neo-evolutionists was that social change, that
is, the Third World becoming more like the First World, can best be
understood and explained as a quasi-biological process. They saw
certain components of developing countries, such as parts of economic,
political and other social structures, evolving from having simple, multifunctional characteristics to having complex, specialised functions, like
the organisations and social structures of First World countries. The way
in which this evolutionary process occurred was called differentiation.2
If Third World countries modelled themselves on First World countries,
then they would progress economically, politically, and socially and
eventually achieve First World status. Since the neo-evolutionist writers in
the 1950s and 1960s modified nineteenth century classical evolutionism
in fundamental ways in order to apply it to poorer countries, they were
called neo-evolutionist rather than just evolutionist.
In the work of many modernisation theorists, evolutionism was usually
more implicit than explicit. This shifted in 1964 with the publication of
an edition of the American Sociological Review, which was devoted to a
review of evolutionary theory. Generally, the contributors to the volume
agreed on the following:
1. Societies are systems that adapt in order to survive.
2. They are primarily systems based upon social norms.3
3. Innovation4 and diffusion5 are critical in modernisation.
2
Differentiation occurs
when different parts
of a society become
specialised, allowing for
greater development. In
traditional societies, the
institution of the family
has responsibilities for
reproduction, economic
life and education. In
modern societies, people
have jobs and go to
school outside the home.
Social norms are rules governing

behaviour. Normative behaviour
is that which is seen as correct
and proper in society. The idea
is central to neo-evolutionary
and modernisation theories, as
they are rooted in the notion
that societies are based upon
consensus rather than conflict.
4
Innovation can be defined
as change involving new, and
implicitly better, ideas or ways of
doing things.
5
4. Modern societies are unique, especially in the extent to which internal

differentiation occurs.
One contributor, Moore, characterised evolution as unpredictable and
inconsistent, using terms like cycles and swings and fluctuation. Parsons
16
Diffusion is an idea that

emerged from chemistry, and was
later used by anthropologists to
refer to the spread of cultural
attributes from one region or
people to another.
went further. Drawing parallels from organic evolution and the work of
Charles Darwin, he suggested that in order for societies to move from
the primitive to the modern, several evolutionary universals have to
be present. By this he means any organisational development which
is so important to any further evolution that it is likely to be hit upon
by various systems operating under different conditions.6 Elsewhere,
he defines an evolutionary universal as any complex of structures and
processes which so increases the capacity of living systems to adapt.7
What this means in plain English is that in order to survive and develop,
societies need the ability to develop the sorts of cultural attributes and
structures of modern western societies including: a wide outlook on the
world, rewards based on achievement, cities, a class system, bureaucracy
and eventually democracy. Similarly to the way humans evolved from
apes, developing societies evolve into developed ones, if they have the
right qualities that allow them to adapt and change into more advanced
societies.8
Parsons, T. Evolutionary
Universals in Society in
American Sociological
Review 29 (3) 1964, pp.
33957 (1964) p.339. See
Roberts and Hite (2000)
pp.8399 for a condensed
version of the article.
7
Parsons, T. Evolutionary
Universals in Society in
American Sociological
Review 29(3)1964,
pp.3401.
8
An accessible introduction
to Parsons and neoevolutionism can be found in
Harrison (1988) Chapter 2.
Modernisation
Modernisation theories were less holistic,9 and tended to emphasise
the importance of the transmission of modern attitudes and values
for the success of development.10 Daniel Lerner was one example of
a modernisation theorist who argued that it was modern techniques
of communicating ideas, which made the difference in making the
transition from a traditional to a modern society, in key institutions such
as education and the mass media. Tradition and modernity were seen as
completely different and even antagonistic forms of social organisation. In
crude terms then tradition was bad and modernity was good.
Inkeles and Smith

Modernisation theorists, Inkeles and Smith, expressed the goal of
development as making men modern (sic).11 This male-oriented idea will
be important to remember when we consider the criticism that women
have been left out of the development process in Chapter 9. Making men
modern is, in many ways, the essence of modernisation theory. Modern
Man has become modern when he has changed as an individual.
Modernity is indicated in the presence of a distinct set of attitudes, which
include:
a readiness for new experience and an openness to innovation
an interest in things other and those of immediate relevance
a more democratic attitude towards the opinions of others
an orientation to the future rather than the past
a readiness to plan ones own life
a belief that we can dominate our environment and achieve our goals
an acceptance that the world is calculable and therefore controllable
an awareness of the dignity of others, for example, women and children
a faith in the achievement of science and technology, albeit a somewhat
simple faith
a belief in distributive justice.12
While most modernisation theorists tended to underestimate the
disruption caused by processes of development, one writer, Eisenstadt,
who edited a book called Readings in Social Evolution and Development
(1966), drew attention to these conflicts from within the general
modernisation paradigm.
Holism comes from

philosophy, and emphasises
that some wholes should
be seen as greater than the
sum of their parts. Neoevolutionary theories were
holistic in the sense that they
emphasised that societies
were systems (wholes)
comprised of institutions
(parts). The process of
social evolution involves a
simple traditional society
being transformed into a
complex modern society.
Less holistic theories might
focus on one aspect of social
change. For example, they
might emphasise the role of
modern ideas and attitudes
in development, rather than
attempting to create a theory
explaining how a traditional
society comprised of many
parts, can evolve into a
modern society.
10
A very accessible and
brief introduction to
modernisation theories can
be found in Preston (1996)
pp.16678.
11
I use the notation sic

because the phrase making
men modern is sexist. Read
Boserups thesis in Chapter 9
suggesting that development
marginalises women. A
condensed version of Inkeles
and Smith can be found in
Roberts and Hite (2000)
pp.13443.
12
Harrison (1988) 2021.
17
Activity
What is the main difference between neo-evolutionary and modernisation theories of
development?
Rostows stages of economic growth

An American economist, Walt Rostow, wrote a well-known book that
combined a variety of strands within modernisation and neo-evolutionary
theory called the Stages of Economic Growth with the sub-title a NonCommunist Manifesto.13 He argued that economic development takes
place in well-defined stages, and mapped the process out more clearly
than the earlier work of Talcott Parsons. Rostow argued that development
is only possible where the socio-economic conditions that promote
money saving among the population exist.14 This is based on his study of
Western economic development. In Rostows first stage, traditional society,
economic output is limited because of a lack of scientific and technological
expertise. Peoples values are fatalistic, that is, they believe that the future
is predetermined and they cannot control it. Political power has not been
centralised, as in a modern state. A new outlook and institutions mark the
second stage, what Rostow called the preconditions for take off. People
begin to support economic advancement. Connected to this, education,
free enterprise and economic institutions are developed further. The
society invests in transportation, communication and raw materials and
this stimulates business. At the same time as modern institutions and
production techniques begin to emerge, aspects of traditional society
remain. Rostow classified this as a dual society, the example of this
situation is a colonial state. The third stage of economic growth is labelled
take off. This stage is manifested in the defeat of traditional barriers to
growth. This could occur through the appearance of new politically active
groups, that prioritise economic growth and expansion, or through the
development of new technologies such as new ways to produce goods
that represented the beginning of the industrial revolution in Britain.
There is rapid economic expansion at this point and the middle class
begins to emerge. Agriculture is commercialised, and output that meets
the needs of growing cities increases swiftly. Stage four is referred to
as the drive to maturity when 10 to 20 per cent of national income is
invested and the economy is nearly developed. The economy begins to
advance beyond heavy industry, and technology gets more sophisticated.
National production and consumption moves from meeting basic needs,
to the ability to choose goods and services. The last stage is called high
consumption and is based on increasing ability to produce high value
consumer items like cars, refrigerators, televisions and computers, the
economy also becomes more service oriented. At this point, peoples basic
needs are satisfied, and the state focuses on social welfare and security.
For Rostow, reaching this stage in the USA coincided with the mass
production of automobiles.
Activity
Give an example of the way Rostow integrated neo-evolutionary and modernisation
thinking.
18
13
Read Roberts and Hite

(2000) pp.1008.
14
Rostows model is
usefully summarised
in Preston (1996)
pp.17577.
Responses to neo-evolutionary and modernisation

theories
From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, neo-evolutionary and
modernisation theories were intensely criticised from various perspectives
within sociology, such as Marxist sociology.15 At the same time, if you
were to look at the activities and programmes of major development
organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and
United States Agency for International Development, you would find that
their policies have always been based on the principles of modernisation
and neo-evolutionary theories. Criticisms of neo-evolutionary and
modernisation theories have come from within academic sociology and
activist groups rather than from mainstream development organisations.16
Gusfields critique
The clearest and most persuasive conceptual critique of neo-evolutionary
and modernisation theories of the 1950s and 1960s, though some of its
substantive examples are dated, is the article by Gusfield. His analysis
focuses on the ways in which the concepts of tradition and modernity,
which are central to many of the theories, misrepresent the sociological
realities that exist in First and Third World countries. He points out that
tradition and innovation are not necessarily in conflict or opposed.
Furthermore, neo-evolutionary and modernisation theories make Western
political forms either inevitable or superior outcomes of political processes
in developing countries, as seen in Parsons evolutionary universals. In
this, he is questioning the linearity of many of these arguments, as in
the Darwinian argument that a society evolves in a straight line from
a pre-modern or traditional society to a modern or essentially (North
American or European) society. In particular, he focuses on a number of
assumptions that these theories make, which he labels false.
15
See Chapter 3 for a

discussion of Marxist
theories of development.
16
A summary of
criticisms of the theories
can be found in
Preston (1996) Chapter
pp.17275.
First, he contends that it is wrong to suggest that traditional society is

untouched by modernity. Neo-evolutionary and modernisation theories
tended to ignore the fact that developing societies had been strongly
influenced by their histories of foreign domination and colonialism. In the
case of India, these influenced and changed important parts of society,
including family life, religious belief and practice, and social structure.
The concept of India as a non-industrialised and agricultural society only
ready for modernisation in the mid-twentieth century is problematic. The
decline of industries in India in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, Gusfield argues, was a result of the British protection of
their own textile manufacturers that were important in the Industrial
Revolution happening there at that time.
Second, he argues that traditional culture is not homogeneous. Hindu
philosophical and religious teaching, for example, is consistent with a
number of diverse orientations to life. The importance of this is that socalled traditional culture is not resistant to change; it can actually allow
for a wide variety of behaviours. In addition, in contrast to modernisation
and neo-evolutionary theorists, Hinduism is compatible with capitalism
and economic development, for example, there is labour mobility
within the caste system. He suggests that many neo-evolutionary and
modernisation theorists were overly influenced by Webers thesis in The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.17
Third, he suggests that modern ideas or practices do not always replace
traditional ones. They may increase the range of options people have
in developing countries. Tradition and modernity are not always in
17
Weber believed that

many non-Western
societies lacked the
cultural attributes
which allowed capitalist
development to take
place. For a review of his
ideas on social change
see Gosling (1997)
pp.3234.
19
conflict. For example, in Japan feudalism and industrial growth have

fused to promote economic development. Tradition and modernity
are not mutually exclusive systems. Instead, Gusfield argues, they are
often mutually reinforcing. Some theorists argued that development
of industrialisation was only compatible with the reduction over time,
from large extended families to small nuclear families based only on two
parents and their children. Industrial growth was also compatible with
large family size among certain groups in India.
The last criticism is that modernising processes do not weaken traditions.
He suggests that increased transportation, technologies, and the spread of
ideas benefits tradition as well as modernity. For example, the traditional
Muslim pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is greatly
facilitated by the access that many people now have to aeroplane travel.
As a result, there are far more pilgrimages to Mecca than there ever
were before the aeroplane. Thus, Gusfield concludes that the common
practice of neo-evolutionary and modernisation theorists to pit tradition
and modernity against each other as paired opposites tends to overlook
the real worlds complexities. Some, but not all, of the points raised by
Gusfield remain valid about modernisation theory today. An example of
this follows.
Crenshaw
The analysis proposed by Crenshaw et al. (2000) attempts to surpass
criticisms regarding the problematic ways in which tradition and
modernity are used or reified18 in modernisation and neo-evolutionary
theories of the 1950s and 1960s. Crenshaw et al., similar to Parsons,
define social change in any society as adaptation that follows conflict.
However, unlike Parsons, they do not refer to value-laden terms such
as evolution, stages of growth, progress, tradition and modernity.
They emphasise transitions that occur resulting from changes in social
and organisational circumstances when looking at issues such as human
reproduction and its link to modernisation. Their model therefore focuses
on mechanisms that produce social change, such as instituting family
planning programmes, rather than prescribing solutions that treat the
social and economic values and structures of Western countries as the
evolutionary ideal for which Third World countries must strive.
Neo-modernisation theory
The revival of neo-evolutionist and modernisation theories in the late
1980s had to do with the changes in Eastern Europe and the demise
of the Soviet Union as well as the apparent end of socialism and the
introduction of the market into many parts of the new Second World,
the former socialist countries. Some of the neo-evolutionist and
modernisation theorists have argued that changes in these countries
support their general theory. This has led to renewed interest in the area
of modernisation in particular, and a new approach to development called
neo-modernisation. The theorists have also tried to transform the ideas
to explain the substantial increase in industrialisation seen in some Third
World countries, particularly in East Asia,19 since the 1960s.
Two schools of neo-modernisation theory have emerged in recent years.
One emphasises the convergence of values resulting from modernisation.
Similar to the idea of making men modern (sic) above, it emphasises
the decline of traditional values and the replacement of modern values.
The other school emphasises the persistence of traditional values
despite economic and political change. This school assumes that values
20
18
Reify literally means

to make thing-like.
It is the process by
which aspects of the
social world, such as
ideas, become fixed
and binding as if they
were objects, part of
the natural world. The
criticism of reification
is often used when
theorists treat their
conceptual categories
as real solid things
rather than fluid ideas
open to revision and
interpretation.
19
These include the

four dragons: Taiwan,
Singapore, Hong Kong
and South Korea.
are independent of economic conditions.20 It therefore argues that

convergence around a set of modern values is unlikely, and traditional
values will continue to exert an independent influence on the cultural
change that results from economic development.
20
DiMaggio (1994).
21
Kreutzmann (1998).
Ingelhart and Baker

In contrast to theorists of the 1950s and 1960s, most contemporary
modernisation theorists support the view that traditional values persist
despite economic and political change. Ingelhart and Baker suggest,
as does Gusfield, that modernisation does not follow a linear path, in
contrast to, for example, Walt Rostow. Economic collapse can also reverse
the effects of modernisation as in the case of the return to traditional
values in the former Soviet Union. Furthermore, although economic
development transforms peoples attitudes in societies in predictable ways,
such as secularisation in the early stages of capitalist industrialisation for
example, the process and path of change varies. Therefore, predictions
about changes in societies need to be based on the historical and cultural
context of the country in question. Samuel Huntington, likewise moved
from a model that emphasised the linear and universal expansion of
Western values through convergence, later stressed the fragmentation
which occurs in an era of globalisation where there is conflict between
different civilisations and cultures.21
Kim
Kim tries to bring together the ideas of conflict and convergence in order
to understand the ways developing societies deal with modernisation.
For him, the economic, technological and military power of more
developed societies forced less developed societies to receive their
values, institutions, and other cultural attributes. The response from
the receiving societies that encountered the intruding societies has
been varied. The extent to which the receiving society is familiar with
the values of the intruding societies is what can be called cultural
preparedness. The level of cultural preparedness determines how people
in the receiving societies will react to values of the intruders.
Usually, traditional societies have been resistant to foreign invaders or
their ideas. This could have been due to inadequate understanding of
them, because of differing cultural outlooks or internal struggles within
the traditional society. Therefore, the nature of the response is connected
with the cultural flexibility of the receiving society. If the receiving
culture and institutions are flexible, then it is more likely that adaptive
change will take place with a small degree of social conflict. Once
contact between the two societies is made, and the initial response from
the receiving society is made, the relative strengths of both societies in
terms of economic resources, technology, and military ability determines
the relationship between the two cultures. This can decide whether the
outcome of the encounter results in complete control, colonisation, brief
occupation, creation of diplomatic relations, or whether other types of
relationship are established. There is an element of choice, or cultural
selectivity in the process of taking on cultural aspects of the intruding
society. If the receiving society is especially flexible, it may be able to
absorb new elements easily, but with selectivity, may adopt some aspects
rather than others. Selection also occurs in the political arena since there
must be a decision about what type of adaptation will take place and how
it will occur; this is called political selectivity. Therefore, the interaction of
political and cultural selectivity leads to an understanding of the process
of how developing societies adapt to modern values.
21
Activity
Identify one similarity and one difference between modernisation and neo-modernisation
theories.
Chapter summary
This chapter examines modernisation and neo-evolutionary theories in
the sociology of development. The theories were especially prominent
in the 1950s and early 1960s, after which they were subject to intense
criticism from theorists influenced by Marx. In recent years, there has
been a renewed interest in revised versions of modernisation and neoevolutionary theories following the developmental successes of some
countries in the Third World. Modernisation theories suggest that the
process of development entails the acquisition of modern ideas and values.
Neo-evolutionary theories are slightly different from modernisation
theories in that they stress a type of biological process where Third
World societies become like First World societies in both culture and
structure. This process involves the whole society: social structures, the
economy, as well as ideas and culture. There are a number of criticisms of
modernisation and neo-evolutionary theories, mainly concerning the fact
that they suggest Third World societies become like the First; rather than
following their own path to a better life. Revisions of modernisation and
neo-evolutionary theory attempt to surpass some of the earlier problems
by focusing on different ways of understanding adaptation outside of an
ethnocentric model.
In the next chapter, we will examine the Marxist and neo-Marxist critique
of, and response to, modernisation and neo-evolutionary theories. All
of these critiques raise the question of whether industrialisation and
development can be spread from one country to another (defined
as exogenous change) or whether it can only come from within the
internal economic and social structures of a given country (known as
endogenous change). Few theorists would argue that development is
ever brought about entirely by exogenous or endogenous factors, but
there is considerable controversy over the relative weights given to each
set of factors. Most neo-evolutionary and modernisation theorists tend
to emphasise endogenous factors, whereas their critics stress exogenous
ones. The critics raise the question of the limitations of endogenous
theories of Third World development, that is the extent to which countries
fail to develop properly due to their own actions as opposed to the effects
of the actions of outsiders.
Activity
Critics argue that institutions like the World Bank are implicitly, if not explicitly, guided
by the tenets of modernisation and neo-evolutionary theories. Find a copy of one of the
World Banks recent World Development Reports, or access the Banks website on www.
worldbank.org/ and see what evidence you can find, if any, of ideas or assumptions
characteristic of neo-evolutionary, modernisation, or neo-modernisation theory.
A reminder of your learning outcomes

Having completed this chapter, and the Essential readings and activities,
you should be able to:
describe modernisation, neo-evolutionary and neo-modernisation
discuss the strengths and limitations of these theories.
22
Sample examination questions

1. To what extent are all theories of development about modernisation?
2. Critically assess the extent to which modernisation and/or neoevolutionary theories explain the status of the Third World.
3. What is the relationship between modernisation and globalisation?
23
Notes
24
Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of development
Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist

Essential reading
Roberts, J. Timmons and A. Hite (eds) From Modernisation to Globalisation:
Perspectives on Development and Social Change. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)
[ISBN 0631210970] Chapters 1012.
Further reading
Baran, P. The Political Economy of Growth. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973)
[ISBN 0140214658].
Brenner, R. The Origins of Capitalist Development: a critique of neo-Smithian
Marxism in New Left Review 104 (July/August) 1977, pp.2792.
Brewer, A. Marxist Theories of Imperialism. (London: Routledge, 1990) second
edition [ISBN 0415044693] Chapters 2, 7 and 8.
Cardoso, F.H. and E. Faletto Dependency and Development in Latin America.
(London: University of California Press, 1978) [ISBN 0520035275].
Corbridge, S. (ed.) Development Studies: A Reader. (London: Edward Arnold,
1995) [ISBN 0 340 61452 8] Chapters 2 and 3.
Evans, P. Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State and
Local Capital in Brazil. (London: Princeton University Press, 1979) [ISBN
0691021856].
Frank, A.G. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America.
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971) [ISBN 0140213341].
Frank, A.G. Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment. (London:
Macmillan, 1978) [ISBN 0140213341].
Kiernan, V.G. Marxism and Imperialism. (London: Edward Arnold, 1974) [ISBN
0713157658].
Laclau, E. Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America in New Left Review 67
1971, pp.1938.
Leys, C. Underdevelopment and Dependency: Critical Notes in Journal of
Contemporary Asia 7(1) 1977, pp.92107.
Phillips, A. The Concept of Development in Review of African Political Economy
8(January-April) 1977, pp.720.
[ISBN 0631195556] Chapters 4 and 12.
Sender, J and S. Smith The Development of Capitalism in Africa. (London:
Methuen, 1986) [ISBN 0416377408].
Shannon, T.R. An Introduction to the World-System Perspective. (London:
Westview, 1989) [ISBN 0813307953].
1974) [ISBN 0127859209].
1980) [ISBN 0127859241].
1989) [ISBN 012785925X].
Wallerstein, I. The Capitalist World Economy. (Cambridge: Cambridge
Warren, B. Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialism in New Left Review 81
1973, pp.944.
Warren, B. Imperialism, Pioneer of Capitalism. (London: Verso, 1980)
[ISBN 0860917320].
25
Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter, and having completed the Essential readings
and activities, you should be able to:
discuss the main Marxist approaches to development
review critiques of the main Marxist approaches to development
discuss empirical studies that use these approaches.
Introduction
Karl Marx (18181883) is considered one of the founding fathers of
sociology, along with Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. He was born
and educated in Germany, but spent most of the later part of his life
in London, living in poverty. He is best known for his academic work
on the connection between economic and social life. In particular, he
was interested in the analysis of societies organised into social classes,
especially capitalist society. He also studied the ways in which societies
moved from one form of social organisation to another, and argued that
this was caused by class struggle between dominant and subordinate
classes. Therefore, he had much to say that was of interest to sociologists
of development. He was especially fascinated by the development of
capitalism in the West. He was not as interested in the developing areas
of the world however, since capitalism was not as advanced there. Later
Marxists thought that his model of the development of capitalism could
be applied to developing countries, because they believed that the notion
of struggle between dominant and subordinate groups explained the
condition of the Third World.
In this chapter, we examine Marxist approaches to development. Just as
there is no one modernisation theory of development, there are several
Marxist approaches to development. The roots of Marxist development
theories lie in classical Marxism, in the writings of Marx, Luxemburg and
Lenin. Neo-Marxist theories drew heavily on Lenins theory of imperialism
to create analyses of underdevelopment, dependency and the capitalist
world system. Orthodox Marxist responses to neo-Marxist theories,
returned to classical Marxist views of imperialism and the capitalist mode
of production. The orthodox Marxist response is often called mode of
production analysis because it focuses on the ways in which the capitalist
mode of production unfolds in individual Third World countries. It aims
to generate this analysis through the examination of empirical cases of
developing countries in order to understand this process.1
Classical Marxism
Neither Marx nor Engels wrote very much about development in
what came to be called the Third World. Their main interests were in
understanding how capitalism developed in the First World and they
looked at other countries only as comparative examples. Marx did not
pursue a detailed analysis of developing societies. While Marx was
interested in feudalism, this was primarily because it preceded capitalism
in Western Europe. He saw societies going through the same stages on
their way to capitalist development, therefore, he favoured evolutionary
explanations to social change. Marx believed that capitalism would
eventually spread throughout the world. He once said that the country
that is more developed industrially only shows to the less developed the
image of its own future.2
26
In revising the material from

this chapter you should focus
primarily on the chapters
in Corbridge, Preston and
Brewer which provide an
overview of Marxist and
neo-Marxist theories of
development, and secondly
on the original writings of
Marxists, empirical studies
and relevant critiques.
2
Marx, K. Capital. Vol. I
(London: Lawrence and
Wishart, 1954) [no ISBN] 19.
An outline of Marxs work
as it relates to developing
countries can be found in
Brewer (1990), Chapter 2; for
a review of the relationship of
Marxs work to later Marxist
writings, see Preston (1995)
pp.813.
Marx
So, what was the mechanism by which capitalism would spread
worldwide? One answer was imperialism, which is the process whereby
one country or region extends its influence over another country or
region through methods such as trade, diplomacy, or military subjugation.
Imperialism was not an idea that Marx himself developed extensively.
Marx saw foreign trade as the basis for preventing a fall in the rate
of profit. This occurred not only through the exploitation of nonindustrialised countries for their raw materials, but also through the more
advanced production techniques of Western countries, which allowed
capitalists in the First World to sell their goods with a higher profit margin
than their competitors in other parts of the world. As Marx said: the
more advanced country sells its goods above their value even though
cheaper than the competing countries.3 This process is known as capitalist
imperialism. Marxs view of capitalist imperialism, then, was that it would
generate a proliferation of autonomous capitalism, such as he expected
in India and did witness in North Africa.4 Marx saw outlying areas of
the world as undeveloped until they were developed by capitalism, and
this is a point on which Marx would agree with neo-evolutionary and
modernisation theorists.
3
Marx, K. Capital. Vol.
III (London: Lawrence
and Wishart, 1959) [no
ISBN] p.238.
4
Kiernan, V.G. Marxism

and Imperialism.
(London: Edward Arnold,
1974) p.198.
Luxemburg
Among the early Marxists, Rosa Luxemburg was the first to emphasise
the Third World in her analysis.5 In The Accumulation of Capital
(1913), she considered the problem that productive capacity in the
West was increasing faster than consumers could buy goods. She argued
that the developing world allowed the expansion of capitalism in the
First World. Pre-capitalist countries provided raw materials, and new
markets for capital. Luxemburg believed that eventually these countries
would be absorbed into a world capitalist system, increasing capitalists
competition for markets. She anticipated neo-Marxist theory by seeing
capitalist imperialism and its associated militarism in the Third World as
linked to the survival of Western capitalism, but for her, imperialism in
developing countries was not centrally important. Lenin took the theory of
imperialism and elaborated upon it, informed by Luxemburg, as well as by
the work of Bukharin and Hilferding.
Lenin
Lenin expanded the idea of imperialism by defining it as the monopoly
stage of capitalism. He saw it as a recent phenomenon, emerging in the
1860s and being established in the early years of the twentieth century. A
key idea in Lenins conceptualisation was finance capital, which for him
was capital controlled by banks and employed by industrialists.6 Banks
use of finance capital provided the basis for the centralisation of the
local, national, and world economies. This was a process transforming
thousands and thousands of scattered economic enterprises into a
single national capitalist, and then into a world capitalist economy.7
Importantly, capitalist imperialism brought about uneven development
and underdevelopment: Both uneven development and a semi-starvation
level of the masses are fundamental and inevitable conditions of [the
capitalist] mode of production.8 Furthermore, also laying the groundwork
for a theory of underdevelopment, Lenin saw imperialism as the logical
extension of capitalism, not just one possible option taken by capitalists,
as argued by other classical Marxists.
5
Chapter 3 of Brewer
(1990) provides an
accessible overview
of Luxemburgs main
writings in this area.
6
Lenin, V.I. Imperialism,
the highest state of
Capitalism. (Peking:
Foreign Languages
Press, 1965) [no ISBN]
p.52. For a review
of Lenins work on
imperialism, see Brewer
(1990) pp.11623.
7

Foreign Languages
p.35.

Foreign Languages
p.128.
27
Neo-Marxist theories of underdevelopment

As discussed earlier, the difference between Marxist and neo-Marxist
theories of development hinges on their relationship to the question of
imperialism. The main neo-Marxist approaches that we will examine
in this chapter are underdevelopment, dependency and world-system
theories. They all draw from Lenin. Their distinguishing feature is that
they see imperialism as responsible for the fact that most of the Third
World today is underdeveloped. One of the main neo-Marxist theorists
is Andre Gunder Frank. Frank has written a series of books on what he
labels the development of underdevelopment9 that drew their inspiration
from the work of the theorist Paul Baran who wrote in the 1950s.
Baran
Baran had developed Lenins ideas of imperialism further by arguing that
it was actually in the interests of capitalism to keep the Third World as an
indispensable hinterland,10 since it provided the West with raw materials
and the chance to extract an economic surplus, or a higher profit rate. For
Baran, the underdevelopment of the Third World was a direct result of the
development of the First World. Development of the First World therefore
took place at the expense of the underdevelopment of the Third World.
The only way out of this problematic relationship was for Third World
countries to de-link from the world economy altogether and introduce
socialist economic planning. This was a direct challenge to the way in
which economic development was seen at the time Baran was writing.
9
See Preston (1996)
pp.2189 for an
overview of Franks
theory and Chapter 2
in Corbridge (1995) on
the development of
underdevelopment.
10
Baran (1973) p.20; see

Preston (1996) pp.215
7 for an overview.
Frank
Frank was able to successfully popularise Barans ideas in the 1960s. He
took Barans notions, and conceptualised them in terms of a capitalist
world system of metropolitan areas and satellite areas. The dominant
world metropolitan areas subordinate the satellite regions through
military, political and trade agreements, and extract an economic surplus.
Within countries, the capital city underdevelops11 outlying satellite
regions; and the capital city is in turn underdeveloped by the world
metropolitan centre. The basis for Franks analysis was the growth records
of many Latin American countries, especially Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
and Chile. For example, he reported Latin American estimates for 1965
that indicated 20 per cent of the rural population had received only 3 per
cent of the national income. At the same time, the wealthiest 20 per cent
of the population received 63 per cent of the national income, the richest
5 per cent received 33 per cent and the richest 1 per cent 17 per cent of
the national income.12 This indicated that industrialisation brought with it
uneven development. He found that during times when the Great Powers
of the First World were otherwise engaged or weakened, such as the two
World Wars, depressions and the like, that Latin American countries were
able to record marked autonomous industrialisation and growth.13 When
links between metropolitan and satellite regions were re-established,
growth in the satellite areas was once again stifled. This contrasts with
cases such as Japan, which was able to industrialise even though it did
not have any natural resources, because it was not the satellite to any
metropolis.
11
It may seem odd
to use a word that is
normally an adjective
(underdeveloped), or a noun
(underdevelopment), as
a verb (to underdevelop).
I do this because
underdevelopment theorists
saw underdevelopment as
an active process occurring
in poorer parts of the world
and directly related to the
development of richer areas,
for example Franks book was
entitled The Development
of Underdevelopment. As
richer areas developed, they
underdeveloped poorer
areas.
12
Frank, A.G,
Lumpenbourgeosie:
Lumpendevelopment
Dependence, Class and Politics
in Latin America. (London:
Monthly Review Press, 1973)
[ISBN 0853452350] p.116.
13
Dependency theory
A key part of underdevelopment theory is dependency theory. It arose
in Latin America in the 1960s with the failure of economic development
plans favoured by Western institutions such as the World Bank,
28
Frank, A.G Latin America:

underdevelopment or
revolution. (London: Monthly
Review Press, 1969) [no ISBN]
xviii and p.10.
International Monetary Fund, and transnational corporations.14 Cardoso,

along with other Latin American theorists, tried to modify the dependency
approach in the late 1960s and 1970s, in line with the work of Frank.15
These theorists were known as the dependentistas (dependency thinkers),
and they called for more national control of the development process and
foreign capital investment. They argued that the way out of dependency
was through governmental reforms, and possibly revolution. The
dependency theorists maintained that development which takes place in
most Third World countries is only in the interests of foreign capitalism
and not in the interests of the mass of the population. This led to the
concept dependent development to describe the type of development
which occurs in Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs) in Latin America
and East Asia. For example, Evans data suggested that in the mid-1970s
Brazil and Mexico received 50 per cent of United States direct investment
in Third World manufacturing. Therefore, their industrialisation was
highly dependent upon international financing.16
World-system theory
Immanuel Wallerstein further advanced the concepts of
underdevelopment theory in The Modern World System.17 He did this
principally by reconceptualising Franks model and adding another
category. Wallersteins theory was based on a capitalist world-system.
The world system had a core consisting of the highly developed countries
of the world, a periphery consisting of countries in Latin America,
Africa and Asia, which are commonly referred to as the Third World,
and a semi-periphery that was made up of countries that were neither
core nor periphery, such as the NICs. For Wallerstein, core countries
underdeveloped peripheral and semi-peripheral countries, and semiperipheral countries were both underdeveloped by the core, and
underdeveloped the periphery. This model helped to place the NICs within
a neo-Marxist theory of development. Wallerstein argues that we cannot
understand any nation-state in isolation, because its development status
will be shaped by its placement within the overall world-system.
Another key aspect of Wallersteins theory is that it is based on an
amended definition of capitalism as production for sale in a market
to realise the maximum profit.18 This departs from the more usual
definition of capitalism as the existence of a specific mode of production
based on private property; capitalists who own the means of production
and workers who are free wage labourers. The new definition allows
Wallerstein to argue that capitalism existed from the fifteenth century. It
also provides the basis for a world analysis, which suggests that as the
world economy develops, so does the division of labour, with different
regions specialising in different aspects of production and consumption.
The core consists of strong states that enforce both unequal trade and
political relationships in such a way as to benefit the core at the expense
of the periphery. Core states appropriate surplus value from the periphery,
which consists of areas that engage in mono-agriculture and export
commodities that are produced using labour that is paid a low wage. The
semi-periphery produces both high and low wage products. Wallersteins
model of a capitalist world-system, based on three interconnected regions,
therefore synthesised various theoretical and empirical strands within neoMarxist theory. Orthodox Marxists returning to Marxs original writings
argued for a shift away from the whole world as an object of analysis, and
back to the region and the nation-state.
14
For a good review
of the Latin American
context in which
dependency theory
arose, see Preston
(1996) Chapter 10.
15
Born in 1931,
Cardoso spent most of
his career teaching in
sociology departments
at American universities.
Today he is President
of Brazil, having been
elected in 1994.
16
See Peter Evans

(1979) for an
examination of
dependent development
in Brazil.
17
An overview of
Wallersteins theory can
be found in Preston
(1996) pp.21921 and
Shannon (1989).
18
Wallerstein (1979)
p.15.
29
Activity
Do you see any inconsistencies between classical Marxism and neo-Marxism?
Orthodox Marxist responses to neo-Marxism

Orthodox Marxist responses start with a critique of neo-Marxism,
suggesting that neo-Marxist theories of development misunderstand
Marxs basic categories of analysis.19 Wallerstein and other world
systems theorists argued that peripheral areas of the world began to be
incorporated into the capitalist world system starting in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. This implies that the capitalist world system existed
before the industrial revolution took place in Western Europe, which was
the period when capitalism developed, according to Marx.
19
Criticisms of neoMarxist theory can be

found in Preston (1996)
pp.2215.
Laclau
A Latin American thinker based in London, Ernesto Laclau, spearheaded
the theoretical critique against neo-Marxism. Laclau stated that Frank
and Wallersteins definition of capitalism, as profit-motivated production
for the market, is inadequate. By doing this, the neo-Marxists ignore the
Marxist concept of the relations of production, between capitalists and
workers. According to Laclau, neo-Marxists confuse capitalism with the
existence of an exploitative economic system. For Laclau, as well as for
Marx, capitalism should be seen as a specific mode of production20 based
on free labourers sale of their own labour power.21 This takes into account
the fact that under capitalism, workers are separated from their means of
production, which was not the case under feudalism. Laclau also criticises
Wallersteins use of the periphery and semi-periphery. Wallerstein saw the
core as being based on a free skilled labour force, and the periphery based
on a coerced, less skilled labour force. The idea of a coerced labour force
is not in line with the ways Marx was defining capitalism.
20
Read Preston (1996)

pp.22633 for an
overview of the mode of
production perspective;
the section of Booths
article in Corbridge
(1995) pp.4550 on
the mode of production
debate is also useful.
21
Brenner
In 1977, Brenner followed on from Laclaus critique and suggested that
the world-systems focus on the capitalist market originating in core
nations, and causing underdevelopment in poorer countries neglects
the Marxist notion that the progression from one mode of production is
primarily based on the class struggle inside countries. That is, in critiques
of world-system models based on the mode of production, you have
writers who focus on the internal dynamics of poorer countries, rather
than the way they are exploited by richer countries outside them. In
Brenners return to class relations inside countries, he is returning to core
themes in Marxist theory; some argue that world-system theorists helped
to distort these ideas. Remember that Marx was trying to understand how
individual countries went through various stages of development, and he
did not conceptualise a capitalist world system. Class struggle is generally
neglected by neo-Marxists, who see Third World classes as merely
comprador, or the local agents of the core countries. To orthodox Marxists,
class struggle is a central concept. One thinker who had initially found
underdevelopment theory to be a great improvement over modernisation
theory in understanding development in Kenya later criticised it as
theoretically repetitive, stagnant, and unable to solve or formulate
problems of development strategy, lacking any practical impact upon
the struggle of the people in Kenya,22 and so on. Phillips, an Orthodox
Marxist critic, furthermore suggested that neo-Marxist theorists should
stop asking whether capitalism can or cannot promote development, and
30
For a review of
Marxs ideas about the
economic and social
aspects of capitalism,
see Preston (1996)
pp.717.
22
Leys (1977) p.92.

Leys work is reviewed
in Brewer (1990)
pp.2535.
instead concentrate on the nature of class conflict in developing countries.

Orthodox Marxist theorists tend to base their analyses on what is actually
occurring in Third World countries, and see neo-Marxist analyses as overly
vague, and even wrong.
Warren
One of the liveliest orthodox Marxist writers to pursue the mode of
production analysis was Bill Warren who argued, contrary to neo-Marxist
writers, that development was occurring in Third World countries.23
Capitalism is fulfilling its historical mission of being progressive and of
expanding worldwide, as Marx argued. What the Third World needed was
not less capitalism, but more. The more people are incorporated into the
capitalist mode of production worldwide, the more likely there will be a
global proletarian revolution, leading to socialism and communism. For
Warren, the development of capitalism in the Third World leads to the
breakdown of dependent relationships with core countries. He therefore
opposes the world-system view that capitalism brings about Third World
underdevelopment, arguing that the empirical data belie this picture
andsubstantial improvements in the material welfare of the mass of
the population have occurred in the Third World following World War
II. Moreover, the developing capitalist societies of Asia, Africa, and Latin
America have proved themselves increasingly capable of generating
powerful internal sources of economic expansion and of achieving an ever
more independent economic and political status.24 In both Imperialism,
Pioneer of Capitalism and Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialisation,
which is a shorter version of the same argument, there are many empirical
examples that Warren uses to support his thesis. For example, he uses
increases in gross national product per capita,25 an indicator used by the
World Bank at the time Warren was writing. This is problematic because
it does not show the distribution of the income, only the average. This
means that a small group may become very rich while most people are
poor; therefore, on its own it is not a very good indicator of development.
This led many neo-Marxists to be dissatisfied with Warrens critique,
mainly because much of his data were gathered from non-Marxist sources,
such as World Bank data.
Warrens theory is based on six main points. They can be outlined as
follows:
23
For a good overview
of the strengths and
weaknesses of Warrens
challenge to neo-Marxist
theory, see the excerpt
of Booths article in
Corbridge (1995)
pp.425.
24
Warren (1980) p.189.
25
Warren (1973) 14. The
gross national product
(GNP) is the total value
of goods produced
and services provided
by an economy in one
year, plus the value of
investments abroad.
GNP per capita is this
figure divided by the
number of people in the
country.
1. Growth rates in many parts of the Third World have been higher than
in the First World since World War II, and there is little to suggest that
the gap between rich and poor has widened.
2. He argues that in a number of countries in the Third World, an
indigenous capitalist class is actively engaged in innovation,
accumulation of capital and involved in manufacturing, the hallmark of
a real capitalist class, not a weak group serving foreign interests as in
the neo-Marxist analysis.
3. Warren views the process of urbanisation positively, in contrast to neoMarxists who see it as underdeveloping the Third World by providing
the organisational link to core countries. For him, the growth of cities
helps to break down pre-capitalist rural structures in developing
countries, and provides an engine for local capitalist development.
Increases in urbanisation are also connected to a rise in gross national
product and improvements in living conditions.
31
4. Other advancements in living conditions are evidenced by the progress

in education, nutrition, health, mortality rates, and housing rates in the
Third World.
5. Capitalist agriculture has also spread to outlying areas in Third World
countries, undermining pre-capitalist modes of production; and linked
to this has been the growth of wage labour and agricultural output.
6. Manufacturing is becoming a larger percentage of the gross domestic
product of many developing countries.
Warren is optimistic about capitalist development in the Third World, but
he realises that much of his analysis does not apply to the poorest parts
of the developing world. He argues that the reason these areas are in an
undeveloped state is because they have been starved of capital.26
Sender and Smith

Sender and Smith applied Warrens analysis to Africa where they
concluded that the emergence of capitalist social relations of production
constitutes the central dynamic process in a wide range of African
societies.27 For Sender and Smith, the failure of some African societies
to develop is not a result of a hostile world system, but the neglect
of the export sector. The failure was brought about by the adoption
of a policy to generate development through the importation of parts
used to manufacture goods for the local market. This policy is called
import substitution industrialisation (ISI).28 It was associated with the
recommendations of underdevelopment and dependency theory. The
policies were seen as being based on neo-Marxist theories because their
aim was to de-link from the global economy in order to manufacture
products for domestic, rather than foreign, consumption.29 They argue that
working conditions, the development of trade unions, and other issues
connected to class conflict are ignored when neo-Marxists blame external
factors for internal problems. For the orthodox Marxists, development has
always been uneven, in all countries and regions, so it is nothing new to
suggest that the Third World is underdeveloped by the First; furthermore,
it is problematic to treat the Third World as a whole. The Third World
consists of many countries at different stages of development. Orthodox
Marxists also argue that the neo-Marxist focus on external exploitation
deflects attention from internal dynamics that allows local elites to use
concepts like underdevelopment and dependency to their advantage by
acting as if they support the masses when they are only trying to serve
their own interests. This is how orthodox Marxists might critique the
proposals of the dependentistas in Latin America.
Chapter summary
To summarise the material from this chapter, we can say that neo-Marxism
emerged from classical Marxism, and drew heavily on Lenins theory
of imperialism to try to explain the current underdeveloped status of
most of the Third World today. Baran, Frank, Wallerstein and the Latin
American dependency theorists developed the neo-Marxist perspective
using a historical macro level approach that considered the whole world
as a unit of analysis. Orthodox Marxists critiqued neo-Marxists chiefly by
arguing that they had strayed too far from classical Marxism, specifically
the capitalist mode of production. Writers such as Warren, and Sender
and Smith also argued for a return to the nation-state as the basic unit
of analysis and supported their studies with a wealth of empirical detail,
later critiqued by neo-Marxists as being problematic because it was
32
26
Warrens critique of
world-system theories can
also be seen as differing
approaches to the real and
the ideal. Warren and his
followers are focusing on
the real Third World as it
can be empirically observed,
while world systems theorists
have in mind an ideal of
socialist development which
has not yet come to fruition.
See Gosling (1997) p.32 on
structuralist and idealist
Marxism. An overview
of this distinction can be
found in Swingewood, A. A
Short History of Sociological
Thought. (London:
Macmillan, 1991) [ISBN
0333558618] pp.7294.
27
Sender and Smith (1986)

p.128.
28
See Chapter 7 for a

discussion of import
substitution industrialisation.
29
We will consider these

issues in more detail in the
Chapter 7, which discusses
Newly Industrialising
Countries (NICs).
derived from non-Marxist sources. Because of these debates, Marxists

have attempted to incorporate both macro and micro level analyses
of development in their explanation of social change, looking at the
relationships between the global and the local in the Third World.30
Activity
Draw a spider diagram of Marxist theories of development. Your diagram can look like an
organisational chart. It should show how the main theories, such as world system theory,
or concepts, such as imperialism, emerged from the writings of Marx. You should also
show the ways in which the theories or their key concepts connect or diverge from each
other. Key empirical examples, such as those from Sender and Smiths study of African
development, may also be linked in your diagram to relevant theories or concepts.
30
We will examine
the next stage in the
debate within theory
and empirical research
in the sociology of
development when
we consider global
approaches to
development in
Chapter 4
A reminder of your learning outcomes

Having completed this chapter, and the Essential readings and activities,
you should be able to:
discuss the main Marxist approaches to development
review critiques of the main Marxist approaches to development
discuss empirical studies that use these approaches.
Sample examination questions

1. Does capitalism create underdevelopment?
2. What the Third World needs is more capitalism, not less. Discuss.
3. How would you go about completing a mode of production analysis on
any one country?
33
Notes
34

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University of London International Programmes

Published by: University of London

Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 1

Chapter 5: Rural development ............................................................................. 45

Liberal feminism and development ............................................................................... 78

demonstrate that you have developed independent critical facilities

How to use this subject guide

Chapter 5 moves away from theories of development, to some of the

Theory and evidence

Internal and external factors

You are advised to read these books carefully.

Specialised sources of data and discussion

An alternative source of analysis and data, focusing less on economic and

Finally, the monthly magazine:

Online study resources

Making use of the Online Library

Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation theories of development

The theories reviewed

Social norms are rules governing

4. Modern societies are unique, especially in the extent to which internal

Diffusion is an idea that

Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation theories of development

Inkeles and Smith

Holism comes from

I use the notation sic

Harrison (1988) 2021.

Rostows stages of economic growth

Read Roberts and Hite

Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation theories of development

Responses to neo-evolutionary and modernisation

See Chapter 3 for a

First, he contends that it is wrong to suggest that traditional society is

Weber believed that

conflict. For example, in Japan feudalism and industrial growth have

Reify literally means

These include the

Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation theories of development

are independent of economic conditions.20 It therefore argues that

Ingelhart and Baker

A reminder of your learning outcomes

Chapter 2: Neo-evolutionary, modernisation and neo-modernisation theories of development

Sample examination questions

Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of development

Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist

In revising the material from

Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of development

Kiernan, V.G. Marxism

Lenin, V.I. Imperialism,

Lenin, V.I. Imperialism,

Neo-Marxist theories of underdevelopment

Baran (1973) p.20; see

Frank, A.G Latin America:

Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of development

International Monetary Fund, and transnational corporations.14 Cardoso,

See Peter Evans

Orthodox Marxist responses to neo-Marxism

Criticisms of neoMarxist theory can be

Read Preston (1996)

Leys (1977) p.92.

Chapter 3: Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of development

instead concentrate on the nature of class conflict in developing countries.

Warren (1980) p.189.