Government and Politics - Crisis of Development Discourse

The Crisis of Development Discourse

The rise of development theory has been an interesting phenomenon. In the latter half of the 20th century, many theorists have tried to explain the origins of "under-development." The debate over the idea of development has been intense, and has led to the emergence of two contending paradigms: Modernization theory and dependency theory. Upon close investigation, one realizes that both theories are problematic. This paper is based on readings of Escobar, Martinussen, Cruise O'Brien, and Pieterse. The purpose of this paper is to chronicle the origins and growth of development discourse, and to show how both paradigms share three flaws: an economist approach to social change, and an ethnocentric and teleological worldview of development, and the perceived universal application of the West's development experience throughout the developing world.

As Escobar points out in The Problematization of Poverty, one of the many changes in the post-WW2 era was the "discovery" of mass poverty throughout the world. This "discovery" had massive implications for development discourse. Prior to WW2, development discourse was limited to the colonial experience. But with the end of colonial rule lurking on the horizon, western academics began to formulate theories of economic growth and "modernization." As a result, an entire genre of academic research emerged: the development discourse. The aim of development discourse was to chart out patterns of growth (which were based on the historical successes of the West) that newly independent countries could use, primarily to escape vicious cycles of poverty, famine, etc.

The birth of development discourse was inherently one-sid...

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Pieterse, Jan. "Dilemmas of Development Discourse: The Crisis of Developmentalism and the Comparative Method" in Development and Change 22 (1991)

Notes

1 Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development. Princeton University Press, 1995. P. 24

2 Ibid. Pp. 23-24

3 Emphasis added by author

4 Ibid. Pp. 52-54

5 Martinussen, John. Society, State and Market. Zed Books, 1997. P. 57

6 Ibid. Pp. 59-60

7 Ibid. Pp. 61-65

8 Ibid. Pp. 88-91

9 Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. Dilemmas of Development Discourse: The Crisis of Developmentalism and the

Comparative Method. P. 15

10 Ibid. P. 15

11 Ibid. P. 15

12 Ibid. P. 17

13 Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development. Princeton University Press, 1995. P. 25

14 Ibid. P. 44

15 Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. Dilemmas of Development Discourse. P. 18