Modernisation Theory

MODERNISATION THEORY

The world is unequal and there may be various reasons as to why some countries face severe poverty while others are well off. We can think of a number of reasons why there is poverty in some countries; it could be lack of resources, war or even natural disasters. This theory basically tries to explain this poverty; and that it is caused by the lack of modernising, or the lack of necessary infrastructure and technology to push the country to the modern era.   Rostow defines 5 stages of the modernisation theory;

• Traditional stage
The society’s economy is largely dependent on agricultural produces. Their income is usually dissipated in non productive activities.   The people in this traditional stages have a certain outlook of the future; that their generations to come will be exactly like them with very little change. In this society, the family and clan ties are very strong and their system of governments are usually decentralised.

• Pre condition for take-off
In this society, there is some certain breed of entrepreneurs coming up with certain specific business goals. Some culture change is observed. The system of decentralised governments is also observed to be heading towards centralisation. There is improvement in transport and communication.

• Take off
Take off is the third stage in modernisation theory. It is characterised by the dynamic change in the economy. It is sometimes referred to as the Economic Take off stage. The main focus of this stage is self-sustainment. Countries in this stage show a great growth in the economy without outside assistance. The factors that hindered growth in these countries have been removed, therefore the economy starts to grow slowly by slowly until it becomes common.
The growth in economy brings about so many advantages; there are more employment and incomes increases from 5- 10 %. The employment mostly is from entrepreneurship and industries, causing a fast decline in agricultural...