RELEVANCY OF THE MODERNIZATION THEORY IN ACHIEVING...

THE APPLICABILITY OF THE MODERNIZATION THEORY IN ACHIEVING DEVELOPMENT IN THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES LIKE TANZANIA The term development is very broad and it has therefore brought many scholars in defining it.in economic view, Development can therefore be defined as the increase of level of economic development of a nation. This is looked upon by the economic indicators, for instance; income per capita, gross national product gross domestic product and the inflationary rates. So once these increase in a given country, it is said to have undergone economic development. However, this definition was further criticized by other scholars postulating that the perception on the income per capita is too general due to the fact that there are†¦show more content†¦A society that is in this stage, has fulfilled the conditions to take off to the other stages. The take off stage is the third stage and is characterized by: manufacturing begins to rationalize and scale increases in a few leading industries as goods are for both export and domestic consumption. The production of secondary goods also increases than the production of primary goods, industries like the textile industries are the first to take off. Moreover, a society in the drive to maturity stage is characterized by the diversification of the industrial base, manufacturing shifts from investment driven towards consumer durable goods and domestic consumption, there is also rapid development of transport infrastructure and large scale investment in social infrastructure example schools and hospitals. Finally, the fifth stage is the mass consumption stage and is characterized by the industrial sector dominating the economy, there is a wide spread consumption of consumer goods and the consumers have more disposable income to purchase luxurious goods. The modernization theory is relevant and is therefore applicable in archiving development in the least developed countries like Tanzania. The underdeveloped countries should make efforts to adopt the characteristics mentioned in each stage by Walt Whitman Rostow to archive development thus the theory is applicable in the following