Abstract
This article seeks to review the early development theories that have dominated the development path in Africa over a number of decades. First, the paper reviews the modernisation theory which dominated the literature on development theory in the 1950s/60s as the former colonies attained their independence. Second, the paper examines the dependency theory which was a critical response to the modernisation paradigm. Third, the paper assesses the nature and form of neo liberal prescriptions that came to be known as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) from the 1980s to the 1990s. Finally, the paper explores the relevance and impact of the identified development theories to the development of Africa.
Highlights
Development studies emerged as a post-war World War II challenge designed to help poorer countries catch up with the richer countries in terms of economic development
The paper assesses the nature and form of neo liberal prescriptions that came to be known as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) from the 1980s to the 1990s
By the late 1980s, the developmental path promoted by the United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA) was publicised not as a promising path leading to greater quality and freedom, but as the only path pointing in that direction
Summary
Development studies emerged as a post-war World War II challenge designed to help poorer countries catch up with the richer countries in terms of economic development. 2016, Vol 4, No 1 underdeveloped world”, “the backward countries”, the “Third World”, the “South”, or “emerging countries” (Greig, Hulme and Turner, 2007:43) These descriptions provide a sense of “us and them” or- translated into the language of development – a sense of who has achieved the goal of “progress and modernity” (Greig et al, 2007:53) and who “needs help” (Power, 2003:99). According to Escobar (1995: 30), as soon as the poorer countries achieved independence, they were “infantilized” by Western academic and political discourses. This provided the pretext for the West to come to the poor countries’ “salvation” through approaching them as a “child in need of adults’ guidance.”.
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