Economic Development Requires Not Merely Capital and Technology. It Is Concerned with the Shaping of Attitudes, the Creation of Forcibly, Workable Institutional Structure or Otherwise. Discuss This Assertion Drawing from Example from the Society
INTRODUCTION
Development must therefore be conceived of as a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and National Institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and eradication of poverty. Development in its essence must represent the whole gamut of change by which an entire social group within that system move away from condition of life regarded as materially and spiritual better.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY DEVELOPMENT
Because development may mean different things to different people, it is important at the outset that we have some working definition or core perspective on its meaning. Without such perspective and some agreed measurement criteria, we will be unable to determine which country was actually developing and which was not.
Development could be seen in terms of fortune in the developed areas or countries. When fortune is pushed down the top of a hill, it rolls and rolls, the lucky ones will grab it while the unlucky ones will stand by and see it roll off.
The only way you can measure development in the past is through the per capita income, goods and ethics or what you call Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In a country like Kuwait with high per capita income and GNP, people were still backward. The desert encroaches on them. Zambia with high per capita income and abundant copper in the early sixties (60’s) did not solve her development impediment.
WHAT DEVELOPMENT REQUIRES
World economic experts came out with development theories to the effect that development was not equated with per capita income but firstly with human factors/resources, , shaping of attitudes and the creation of forcibly or otherwise of workable institutional structures.
It demands the position of new shields, new habits, new institutions all of which require far reaching social change and this social change in turn require for its inception
Development must therefore be conceived of as a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and National Institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and eradication of poverty. Development in its essence must represent the whole gamut of change by which an entire social group within that system move away from condition of life regarded as materially and spiritual better.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY DEVELOPMENT
Because development may mean different things to different people, it is important at the outset that we have some working definition or core perspective on its meaning. Without such perspective and some agreed measurement criteria, we will be unable to determine which country was actually developing and which was not.
Development could be seen in terms of fortune in the developed areas or countries. When fortune is pushed down the top of a hill, it rolls and rolls, the lucky ones will grab it while the unlucky ones will stand by and see it roll off.
The only way you can measure development in the past is through the per capita income, goods and ethics or what you call Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In a country like Kuwait with high per capita income and GNP, people were still backward. The desert encroaches on them. Zambia with high per capita income and abundant copper in the early sixties (60’s) did not solve her development impediment.
WHAT DEVELOPMENT REQUIRES
World economic experts came out with development theories to the effect that development was not equated with per capita income but firstly with human factors/resources, , shaping of attitudes and the creation of forcibly or otherwise of workable institutional structures.
It demands the position of new shields, new habits, new institutions all of which require far reaching social change and this social change in turn require for its inception
References: Edame, G. E (2001). Development Economics and Planning in Nigeria, Benin City: Harmony Books Ltd. Olaloku, F. A, F. O. Fajona, S. Tomori and L. I. Ukong, (1982). Structure of the Nigerian Economy. The Macmillan Press Ltd. University of Lagos Press, Nigeria, P 13. Rostow, W. W. (1996) The Stages of Economic Growth: A Wonderful Communist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press. Rodney, W. (1976). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Tanzania Publishing House, Daeres-Salem. Seers, Dudley (1972). What are we Trying to Measure in Journal of Development Studies. Vol. 8, April, PD 21-36. Todaro, Michael P. (1977). Economic for a Developing World. London: Longman Publishers