Modernization and Dependency Theories (Term Paper Sample)

MODERNIZATION AND DEPENDENCY THEORIES.
1 INTRODUCTION
In this paper we shall attempt to define and describe what modernization and dependency theories are and entail based on what other have said and a critical analysis of the same. A conclusion to wrap up will be given at the end.
2 MODERNIZATION THEORY
This theory which is also referred to as the Old Paradigm, was a concerted effort of the global North to modernize the global South. According to Adjibodou (nd), a French philosopher named Marquis de Condorcet was among those who originated with the Modernization Theory. The theory postulates that technological advancements and economic changes will trigger change in people's moral and cultural values. It adds that development is economic progress.
The scholars who have advanced this theory argue that development can only be realized by applying the same processes and strategies employed by the so called, "developed" countries. "USA was defining development and social change as the replica of its own political-economic system," (Servaes, 2002).
After World War II strong proposals were made that those "primitive" societies who were labeled as underdeveloped needed to be "modernized" or "westernized" through making them to adopt the modern lifestyles and values and discard their "backward" values.
Following colonization, the Northern nation's most of whom were also former colonizers of the Southern nations many of which were in Africa, felt that their subjects needed to be introduced and inducted into their development methods mainly by applying modern technology. This was to facilitate development in these nations that were perceived as underdeveloped due to their poor technology and lack of Western knowledge on development. The westerners also believed that people especially in Africa had an urgent need to be enlightened which entailed transferring their methods and techniques from the West to Africa.
This perception was ill-conceived because the West did not take time to understand the real situation on the ground and did not even attempt to actively involve the perceived beneficiaries to establish what their priorities and preferences were; they believed in their modern technology so much that they overlooked other important aspects of sustainable development.
Adjibodou (nd) says that"Walt Rostow and A.F.K. Organski came up with stages through which each country can develop. Rostow stresses the importance of the "take-off" stage as the point at which an economy takes off and accelerates toward becoming a modern, industrialized, increasingly prosperous economy. In addition, Servaes (2002) says, "developing nations were attracted by the new technology transfer and the model of a centralized state with careful economic planning and centrally directed development bureaucracies for agriculture, education and health as the most effective strategies to catch up with those industrialized countries”
Adjibodou (nd) asserts that modernization shows how societies and nations develop from being prehistoric to becoming modern by passing through necessary stages. The main emphasis is put on economic development, political stability, and social and cultural change. Joshi(2005) says "in this singular conception of ‘development' as economic growth, industrialisation became a race of catching up with the West or with standards almost entirely set by West-centric institutions for a country to be deemed developed. Accompanying this frantic activity was the project of modernisation." With the aid from the developed countries, the developing counties would develop in the sectors of agriculture, basic education, health, rural transportation and community development (Servaes, 2008).
However, Rostow and his colleagues came under heavy criticism in the 1970s and 1980s because of their conclusion that, since economic and social progress was achieved in some countries, it would work similarly elsewhere.
Modernization paradigm was simply an attempt to herd people like cows into new ventures whose initiatives were foreign and misplaced, there was almost zero participation of the perceived beneficiaries and the benefits, ideas and eventually modernization was expected to "trickle down from the top to the bottom" without consultation, questions or discussions.
According to University of Twente (2014) the modernization process had an effect on human communication and that "modernization theories explain the changing ways of communication and media use in traditional and (post)modern societies." University of Twente (2014) argues that modernization theory has evolved in three waves. The first wave which appeared in the 1950s and 1960s explained how Western styles of living, and technological innovations and characterized by secularism, materialism and capitalism took center stage. There was economic development as promoted by mass media, literacy and mass media supporting national identities in new nations (colonies) and democratic policies.
The second wave of modernization theory came into the fore in the 1970s and 1980s where Western modernization was criticized. This emerging criticism among scholars gave birth to the media dependency theory which posited that peripheral (developing) countries were assumed to be dependent on mass media in the core (the Western world).
The third wave of modernization theory emerged in the 1990s and today is commonly referred to as post-modernity. It attempts to give a more neutral perspective, by not being in favor or against Western modernization. The theorists here argue that modern societies stretch further and further across the globe and time using mass media thanks to modern technology band and interactive media courtesy of the internet.
After the cold war global communication was used to modernize and develop the Third world nations. The notion was that global communication can be used to spread modernity among the newly independent countries and that it will help to transform the traditional societies of the developing countries. It was also used to transfer the hypothetical description of economic and political entity of the developed countries.
Therefore, modernization theory is an attempt to provide a support for the development policies which was created by the western countries. These development policies were supported towards the Third world countries which were still getting out of the rule of the stronger countries and were getting independent. This theory is just an attempt to explain the economic and technology under-development of the Third world nations by focusing on the development which can be done with a process which is determined by the society's internal features (, 2014).
Therefore, modernization includes economic scientific and technical development that is very closely related to the capitalist market.
3 DEPENDENCY THEORY
The theory is attributed to American Paul Baran (1957) who articulated the thesis that the imperialist dependence after the end of colonial period is ensured by the reproduction of socioeconomic and political structures in accordance with interests of the powerful nations (Servaes and Malikhao, 2008). Dependency can be defined as an explanation of the economic development of a state in terms of the external influences--political, economic, and cultural--on national development policies, this reference is in terms of development.
Melkote and Steeves (2001) described dependency as a "world-system of exploitation , where the ‘core' nations exploit ‘periphery' nations, with the assistance of elite groups within the periphery nations" (pg. 170). According to Adjibodou (nd) the proponents of this theory were influenced by Karl Marx who argued that some countries achieve development by keeping others underdeveloped. They argue that underdevelopment is as a result of development and progress therefore depends upon changing the relationships among nations.
Bernstein, (ed.) (1978) notes that all dependistas agreed that, "dependence is a conditioning situation in which the economies of one group of countries are conditioned by the development and expansion of others" p. 76. In the late 1950s, Raul Prebisch, the Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, and colleagues discovered that increased economic activity in the industrialized nations repeatedly caused serious economic problems in less developed nations.
Servaes and Malikhao (2008) says that dependence is a conditioning situation in which the economies of one group of countries are conditioned by the development and expansion of others. As a result, capitalism is created to breed monopoly where there is increases in the size of companies, the export of capital and scramble for resources in Africa (Melkote and Steeves, 2001). In addition, the ‘development of underdevelopment' in the Third World nations was and is related to the economic development of Western Europe and North America. The Western capitalistic nations slowed the development of Africa by controlling her economic development.
Dependency theory can also be looked on the phenomenon of the Cold War which divided the countries into Eastern countries and western countries. During the Cold War which lasted for more than 50 years had most of the Third World Nations preferring to avoid the group of countries which had common interest in politics. They wanted to concentrate on getting their population out of the control of the other legal or political restrictions (, 2014). The world was divided between the capitalist first world which was led by the United States, and the communist second world, which was headed by USSR in Moscow. All this happened because it was assumed that the South which was Third World, was on the receiving end of decisions and affected by changes determined outside the South ( Saull, 2005).
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