Modernization Theory Essay

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Modernization Theory The modernization theory was created as a means of an explanation on how industrial societies, predominately the United States and Europe, advanced. Modernization theory is a description and explanation of the processes of transformation from traditional or underdeveloped societies to modern societies. According to Rostow’s modernization theory, societies develop in the same stages, which become more complex with each stage. Rostow, wrote a book called Stages of Economic Growth in 1960, which introduced a five stage model in which every country needed to complete in order to be considered a developed country. The five stages were as follows: 1) traditional society, 2) preconditions to takeoff, 3) takeoff, 4) drive to maturity, and 5) age of high mass consumption (Rostow, p.52). Rostow theorized that every country on the globe, even the most underdeveloped ones, is experiencing one of these stages and each country would eventually move up to the final stage of development. Not everyone agreed with Rostow’s views about modernization though, Samuel P. Huntington was one of those critics. Huntington’s theory regarding modernization says that societies become more complicated and chaotic as they experience modernization. If political and institutional structures do not evolve along with society, then the outcome would most likely result in violence (Rostow, p. 54). Dependency theory came about as a response to modernization theory. According to Andre Gunder Frank’s dependency theory, the underdevelopment of countries is directly caused by the development of capitalism itself and therefore such countries cannot achieve the same level of success as that of developed countries. This theory goes against Rustow’s the five stages theory, because the underdeveloped countries cannot progress through any stage until the involvement of capitalistic
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