TOPIC INFO (UGC NET)
TOPIC INFO – UGC NET (Political Science)
SUB-TOPIC INFO – Comparative Political Analysis (UNIT 4)
CONTENT TYPE – Short Notes
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1. Development
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Modernization Theory and Political Development
2. Underdevelopment
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Meaning of Underdevelopment
2.3. Salient Features of Underdeveloped Countries
2.4. Approaches to Understand Underdevelopment
2.5. Attacking Underdevelopment. The Policy Options
2.6. Examining Some Economic Structures in the Light of Underdevelopment
3. The Dependency Theory of Development
3.1. The Characteristics of Dependent Economy
3.2. Approaches to Dependency
3.3. Criticisms of Dependency Theory
4. Modernization
4.1. History
4.2. Modernization and Democracy
4.3. Modernization and Economic Development
4.4. Modernization and Globalization
5. World Systems Theory
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Major Intellectual Influences
5.3. Key Concepts and Definition
5.3.1. What is World System?
5.3.2. Core Periphery and Semi-Periphery
5.4. A Historical Perspective on the Capitalist World Economy: Origin and Development
5.5. Criticism and Evaluation
6. Democracy
6.1. Meaning and Forms
6.2. Case of Developed Countries ‘First Wave of Democracy
6.3. Case of Developing Countries: ‘Second Wave of Democracy
6.4. Post-Communist States: Third Wave of Democracy
6.5. Critical Appraisal
6.6. Some Important Statements
6.7. Salient Features of Liberal Democracy
6.8. Salient Features of Radical or Social Democracy
6.9. Some Important Terms relating to Democracy
6.10. Huntington on Three Waves of Democracy
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Development
Comparative Politics (Unit 4)
Development
Introduction
Political development became a subfield of comparative politics in the 1960s, influenced by modernization theory.
Before the 1960s, comparative politics focused mainly on the forms of government in advanced industrial nations, like Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The emergence of new states in Asia and Africa following the breakup of European empires and the Cold War conflict led to a shift in comparative politics towards the study of the ‘new’, ‘emerging’, ‘underdeveloped’, or ‘developing’ nations.
Modernization theory became the dominant paradigm, linking economic development, social change, and democratization.
In the early 1960s, political modernization became synonymous with political development, emphasizing transitions towards democratic politics, growth of interest groups, development of bureaucracies, political parties, and democratic institutions.
In the 1970s, the dependency theory, which developed in Latin America, replaced modernization theory as a dominant explanatory framework, focusing on the external constraints imposed by global capitalism on political development.
However, as several Asian countries and Argentina experienced rapid economic growth, the dependency theory lost credibility as an explanatory theory.
In the 1980s, Statism emerged as a new perspective for explaining political development.
The 1980s also witnessed a wave of democratization, weakening and often ending military, authoritarian, and communist regimes.
Modernization Theory and Political Development
Explicit efforts to theorize political development began in the latter half of the 1950s, shaped by modernization theory.
Modernization theory was informed by two theories: evolutionary and functional theories.
Evolutionary theory assumed that social change is unidirectional, progressive, and gradual, moving societies from a primitive stage to an advanced stage, making societies more similar as they evolved.
Functionalist theory emphasized the interdependence of social institutions, the importance of pattern variables at the cultural level, and the built-in process of change through homeostatic equilibrium.
Modernization theory shaped ideas about development and change in economics and sociology in the post-World War years.
The Economic Approach
In the discipline of economics, development became a major focus following Karl Polanyi’s work, The Grand Transformation during World War II.
In the 1950s, Bruce Morris and Everett von Hagen, and in the 1960s, W. W. Rostow and Robert Heilbroner worked on economic development in emerging nations.
The rich and developed countries (United States and European nations) became the reference points for development.
It was assumed that less developed countries would follow the same trajectory of development and eventually catch up with advanced countries.
W.W. Rostow’s The Stages of Economic Growth illustrated this thinking on development.
Rostow identified five stages of development that all societies pass through:
Traditional societies: Dominance of agricultural production and limited productivity.
Preconditions for take-off: Resulting from scientific innovations and surpluses that can be used for investment.
Take-off stage: A phase of self-sustained growth, with manufacturing driving development.
Drive to maturity: Replacement of original growth sectors by new ones, such as heavy industry.
Age of high mass consumption: Emphasis on consumption rather than production.
Rostow argued that the most politically difficult period in a nation’s development was the “preconditions” stage, characterized by social dislocation and psychological insecurities.
Rostow’s stages and his focus on economic factors as the driving force of development shared similarities with classical Marxists.
Marx emphasized a dialectical process with clear breaks from the past, often violent, whereas Rostow envisioned a smooth and unilinear path of development for all countries.
Like Rostow, other economists in the 1960s believed development problems were internal and could be solved through external stimulation, development of science and technology, and entrepreneurship.
They also assumed that political and social development would follow economic growth and industrialization.