The Roots of the Development Project

1. The Roots of the Development Project Ch. 4, Greig, et. al.

2. Stepping back into history • Enlightenment and the concept of development • Poorer countries and the legacy of colonialism • Development pacesetters and late-comers • Endogenous and exogenous forces in the process of development

3. Progress and Modernity • Modern versus traditional • Late middle ages: religious dogma • Modern era: science • Descartes • Modern dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants…. • Enlightenment approach: accumulated, generalizable knowledge • Versus tradition: culture is pervaded with what has already been said, by recurrence of discourse, by ‘citational’ practice • Secularization: both natural order and social orders can be understood through reason and hard work • Hence, concept of development

4. Meanwhile, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution acted as catalysts of modernity • New social relationships • “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” • Simon and Comte (French sociology) • Karl Marx • Max Weber: rationalization of authority • Durkheim: division of labor and societal change • Simmel • Spencer: social Darwinism • Linear thinkers • Stages

5. After 1945, focus on post-colonial development • Classical sociological theories adapted • Continuation of the Enlightenment and West European Industrial Revolution • But, even then there was a tension between certainty and uncertainty • Paradoxes of modernity: Marx • Iron cages: Weber • Anomie: Durkheim • But the ‘cult of progress’ came to dominate postwar social theories

6. Belief in progress is the prozac of the thinking classes • ‘secular religion’

7. Colonialism and Inequality • Direct colonial rule around the globe • Justifications: gold, but also religious zeal • Later other ‘modern’ justifications: indigenous people were ‘backward’ or ‘pre-civilized’. Protection or tutelage. • Racism: ‘scientific’ justification for national inequalities • Phrenology and eugenics • Ethnicity and environmental determinism explanations • Factor endowments • ‘age of empire’

8. After WW1 empire was less popular • Colonial rebellions • Opposition movements to exploitation • Students sent to center metropolis and their awareness of exploitation (beginnings of nationalism) • 1917 Bolshevik Revolution • Other examples of resistance and success: Japan as an indsutrializing and military power

9. Liberal sentiments in Europe and USA • But rise of fascist powers in 1930s • Anti-colonial movement proved irresistible in the wake of the defeat of the fascist axis in 1945 • Legacy of colonialism is controversial • Claim that socio-economic development of postcolonial societies has been distorted by colonial legacy

10. But others argue that, on balance, it was a ‘good thing’ • D’Souza, Windschuttle (apologists) • Amartya Sen (critic) • But, let us return to our question: are global wealth and poverty interconnected? Structures or stages of development? • But, first, more theory from 20th century

11. The Setting for Development Practice after 1945 • UN membership: new states proliferate • ‘Development’ as an intellectual and practical project • 1945-70: ‘golden age’…economic boom • Controlling cycles of booms and busts • Keynes • Postwar reconstruction • Employment levels, social services, steer away from recession • Less market mechanism and more regulation • Only Hayek opposed regulation and Keynesianism

12. Replicating this model in the developing world • Cold War meant that USA and West wanted postcolonial countries to follow a particular trajectory • Soviet Union as alternative model of development • Communism • Kennedy: peaceful revolution (development) versus violent revolution…. • Independence struggles and socialist ideology • Poverty, thus, became important to the US

13. Poorer countries negotiated to exploit concessions from superpowers • All territory was considered strategic • Foreign intervention • USA’s growing global economic reach • UN, Bretton Woods, GATT, IMF, WB • Once Europe rebuilt, focus was on postcolonial states • Infrastructure

14. Concessional loans • Unequal terms of trade • Rise of structuralist economists • Exploitation of commodities • Next, we will discuss ‘modernization’ theory and then ‘dependency’ theory