POLITICS AND POLICY STUDIES: Development Theories Comparison

This assignment explores the concepts of development and underdevelopment, examining how they are measured and understood. It references Handelman's perspective on measuring underdevelopment, emphasizing poverty, unequal income distribution, and inadequate infrastructure. The essay then compares and contrasts modernization and dependency theories, providing an example to illustrate the arguments. Modernization theory is presented as emphasizing economic transformation for growth, while dependency theory highlights the exploitation of underdeveloped countries by developed nations. The author supports the dependency theory, arguing it reflects the reality of global economic disparities. The essay concludes by suggesting modernization theory is vague and that economic transformation is a costly process.

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POLITICS AND POLICY STUDIES
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Author Note

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What is development? What is underdevelopment? What are the ways
underdevelopment can be measured, according to Handleman? Do you
think Handleman’s understanding of underdevelopment is reasonable? Use
an example to illustrate your argument. Compare and contrast
modernization and dependency theory of development. Are either of these
best ways to understand development?. If so, why? If not what is the better
way to understand development. Provide an example that explains what
you mean.
Development is often defined as the process which helps in creating progress, growth
and positive change in one self or in the society and environment. According to scholars, the
development in terms of countries is mainly referred to working towards achieving living
standards, equality, economic performance and sustainability (Kitova et al 2016).
Underdevelopment generally means when the process of making progress is stagnant
and instead of positive growth there is negativity in one self or in the environment or the
society. In terms of a country it is somewhat similar where scholars have stated that
underdevelopment in a country means the development but at a very low level of
development which is generally characterized by the low income of people, poverty, the low
level in the literacy rate, low life expectancy and also the underutilization of the resources
which are present and many more (Cuervo-Cazurra and Ramamurti 2017).
According to Handelman, the most common characteristics of countries that are
underdeveloped can help in measuring underdevelopment. According to him, one of the most
salient characteristics of underdevelopment is poverty (Handelman and Rex 2019). He states

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that at the grassroot level, underdevelopment is considered to be the combination of unequal
distribution of income, low income per capita, very poor infrastructure which also includes
transportation and communication and also the limited use of technology. These highly help
in measuring underdevelopment. There are other factors that help in measuring
underdevelopment according to the author are substandard housing, widespread scarcity,
inadequate nutrition, low education and literacy level and people in living in poor health
conditions.
I agree with the how Handelman has provided the factor which help in measuring
underdevelopment. I believe that development of a country means the overall development
from the high currency rate, good economic growth and also the social well-being of the
people or citizens of the country in terms of their quality of life, education and literacy rate
life expectancy and many more. A country can be called developed when it successfully
manages to look after the overall development of the country. For example, the United States
of America is considered to be one of the most developed countries because of the good
policies in terms of their economy and the social reforms which paves way for the overall
development of the country like less social issues, less rate of poverty and illiteracy, less
unemployment rates, has one of the highest rate of currency and many more which develop
economically as well as socially.
The theory of modernization is basically underpinned with the idea of development as
a consistent growth. According to scholars, modernization basically defines as the path
towards a proper and well developed industrial society (Hout 2016). On the other hand,
dependency theory states that the present state of underdevelopment or underdeveloped
countries in many nations across the world can be explained by examining and monitoring
the patterns of the interactions among the nations and by arguing the fact that inequality
among those nations in an integral aspect of the conversations (Tausch 2018).

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Using the modernization theory of development a country through economic
transformation can experience economic growth which allows the underdeveloped countries
to catch up with the developed countries on the other hand dependency theory shows how
there is a disparity among the developed and the underdeveloped countries and how the
resources flow from the periphery of the underdeveloped and the poor states in terms of
social and economic factors and then goes to the core states and countries that are developed
and wealthy which helps in enriching the latter countries at expense of the underdeveloped
and the poor countries.
I believe that the dependency theory does provide a good understanding of
development as it reflects on the reality of the structure where the rich countries does exploit
the poor countries and dominates them for their own good resulting in social and economic
disparities. Majority of the developed countries are highly dependent on underdeveloped
countries in terms of resources, exports and various other facilities which help in developing
their economy and the overall development. The theory of modernization is somewhat vague
because its states that an underdeveloped country should have an economic transformation
like setting up industries however it is important to see that how the underdeveloped
countries do not have sufficient economy and thus are dependent on the powerful and the
exports to the developed countries. Economic transformation is a very expensive process and
would take a country several years to establish high quality infrastructure without having
negative impacts on the society to successfully compete with the developed countries.

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Reference
Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro, and Ravi Ramamurti. "Home country underdevelopment and
internationalization." Competitiveness Review: An International Business
Journal (2017).
Handelman, Howar and Brynan Rex 2019. "Challenges of the Developing World". Google
Books. https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=PnJ9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=what+are+the+ways+under
development+can+be+measured+handleman&ots=oVZMCuOdfI&sig=3aviYupXMrJ
v-4qLeAYnDYMf5-4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=what%20are%20the%20ways
%20underdevelopment%20can%20be%20measured%20handleman&f=false.
Hout, Wil. "Classical approaches to development: Modernisation and dependency." In The
Palgrave Handbook of International Development, pp. 21-39. Palgrave Macmillan,
London, 2016.
Kitova, Olga Victorovna, Igor Borisovich Kolmakov, Ludmila Pavlovna Dyakonova, Olga
Alekseevna Grishina, Tamara Petrovna Danko, and Vladimir Dmitriyevich Sekerin.
"Hybrid intelligent system of forecasting of the socio-economic development of the
country." International Journal of Applied Business and Economic Research 14, no. 9
(2016): 5755-5766.
Tausch, Arno. "Globalisation and development: the relevance of classical “dependency”
theory for the world today." International Social Science Journal 68, no. 227-228
(2018): 79-99.

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