Altenative Development

4 Pages 953 Words

‘Alternative’ development is concerned with civil society, not the state or market. Also known as ‘third system politics’, it is more concerned with the unseen victims, than the victors in other development drama. (Hettne)

Unlike previous development theories, the unit of analysis is communities, people and their livelihoods, as opposed to the world economy. This new alternative theory comes with the realisation of global interdependence and acknowledges that the concerns of the global population are interlinked. The main idea is to redefine development along alternative, ethical and normative lines, to create a working development theory of mutual interest to all those in global system.

The need for a new development theory was brought about by the serious concerns of the third world and the interest the first world has in seeing their situation improve. Modernisation theory was unchallenged for a time, but it wasn’t working. Old problems re-emerged with new ones. A shift in the debate revealed a new approach was needed.

In the 1950s and 1960s, industrialisation and maximum economic growth were the development objectives. This had some success, for example in India, from 1950 to 1975, average wages increased by 50%. But the ‘trickle down’ theory, that economic growth would help the needy as well, wasn’t working. By the end of the 1960s, the proportion of the developing world’s population living in poverty has increased. New problems emerged to worsen the situation: an increase in population, deteriorating environments (linked to population increase) and the growing arms trade in the developing world. By the late 1960s and 1970s, there was a halt in economic growth in the US, an effect of the Vietnam War, bringing increases in instability and inflation. Suddenly the World Bank stopped loans to the third world. The crisis worsened again in the 1970s, when OPEC raised the price of oil, causing worldwide politica...