Economic Theories of Development: An Analysis of Competing Paradigms.

• Author: Field, Alfred J., Jr.

As suggested by the title, this book outlines various selected perspectives on the process of economic development which have emerged in recent years and which have influenced economic policy in developing countries. The purpose of the book is to elucidate the nature of what the author perceives to be the current dominant strains of thought about the development process, and to clarify the nature of the major differences between them. It is written to compliment the typical economic development text which generally tends to be weak in the exposition of general theories of development. Inasmuch as the nature of the development analysis undertaken and the resulting policy prescription ultimately rest on some dominant paradigm, the author has undertaken a useful, albeit ambitious project.

The book evolves in a systematic fashion. In Chapter 1, (Introduction) the author introduces the idea of the Kuhnian paradigm which is used to differentiate the different schools of thought, and lays out the structure of the book. Chapter 2 (The Theoretical Heritage) provides an historical review of selected elements of dynamic theory relating to long run growth which had accumulated by the mid-twentieth century, focusing on those theoretical elements that might explain aspects of the processes of economic growth and rising labor productivity. This sets the stage for Chapter 3 (The Theoretical Debate in Development Economics From the 1940s: An Overview) in which the author reviews contemporary contributions to development theory, identifies what she perceives to be the principal resulting paradigms and lays out the remaining structure of the book. The subsequent chapters are each devoted to the formal presentation and evaluation of a particular paradigm. Chapter 4 (The Paradigm of the Expanding Capitalist Nucleus) presents an examination of the Classical type of Lewis/Ranis-Fei dual sector models, while Chapter 5 (The Structuralist Paradigm) formally analyzes the Latin American structuralist school. Contemporary mainstream Marxist thought is discussed in Chapter 6 (The Neo-Marxist Paradigm), Chapter 7 is devoted to a rigorous examination of dependency analysis (Dependency Analyses: The Seeds of a New Paradigm?), and Chapter 8 (The Maoist Paradigm) focuses on the critical elements of the Chinese model. The impact of the increased attention to basic needs is discussed in Chapter 9 (The Basic Needs Paradigm) and the key development contributions of the...