Political Science 2225E Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Eurocentrism, Walt Whitman Rostow, Marshall Plan
10 Mar 2020
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Document Summary
Why are majority of people in the developing world poor or why are socio-political- economic conditions in developing countries poor and what is the best way to address them: modernization perspective. Economic development leads to social and political change. Obstacles to development lay in local institutions, values, and tradition: practices or ways of doing things, human behaviour, values/beliefs, customs. The key to development is to modernize those societies by transferring values, institutions, capital and technology (modern ways of doing things) to them. What is the central argument of modernization perspective: claims that only external actors can modernize developing countries, claims that external factors dictate development and underdevelopment, claims that domestic sources are the main drivers of development and underdevelopment. Key assumptions: progress is linear and good. Point a is traditional society point b is modern society. See this movement from a to b as progress.
