Veritas University, Abuja

PSD 818

College of Social Sciences

Department of Political Science And Diplomacy

15th June, 2022

By

Wariso, Terence Idatonye

Lecturer: Fr. Dr. Emmanuel Okwara

Question: Critically examine various political perspectives on modernization and dependency as

regards to third world in global politics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Critically examine various political perspectives on modernization and dependency as
regards to third world in global politics.
3. Conclusion
4. References
INTRODUCTION

The first concept of global politics can be traced as far back as 1648 and it was introduced with the
aim of promoting world peace and harmony in the affected states and providing wide-reaching
peace among every country (Cruz, 2015). According to Heywood (2011), global politics can be
defined as the politics conducted at a global rather than national or regional level. That is to say that
it is mainly about how the leaders of the various countries in the world interact and decide the
management of their country and in turn, the direction of the world. In the bid to interact, each
country’s leader clamors to properly navigate their nation and increase the reach, importance or
influences that their nation has on the global spectrum and in turn, secure their country’s economy.
And one can simply say that doing this brought about the need for globalization.
Globalization simply put refers to the way the different countries share money, culture and product
as a result of international trade, various advancements in both transportation and communication.
It is also a social process that allows people become more aware of different cultures and people
due to the unavoidable need for economic interdependence.
In recent times, it is believed that an important characteristic of globalization is its focus and
emphasis on cultural aspects and their communication worldwide. However as opposed to the
economic, financial and political ties, some scholars dispute that the main modern rudiments for
development interpretation are the cultural links among nations (Reyes, 2001). This is because
cultural factors are the compulsory determinant aspect in every society. In this cultural
communication, one of the most important factors is the consistent and improving ability of
technology to connect different people around the world. So, it is not important, under current
world conditions to use the nation-state as the unit of analysis, since global communications and
international ties are making this category less useful. Third, with more standardization in
technological advances, more and more social sectors will be able to connect themselves with other
groups around the world (Reyes, 2001).
However, just like every concept has its positive and negative outcomes, the same can be seen in
globalization. The first world countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, etc portray
the positive and success rates of globalization. Meanwhile, the third world countries such as some
parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America portray the negative and failure rates of globalization. In the
third world countries, globalization generates fear of marginalization (Munir, 2016). Over the years,
the down sides of globalization have been made evident in almost every sector of the third world
countries. Various research works have been carried out to show the imbalance and progressive
nature of globalization in the aforementioned third world country. “Since the 1980s, overall foreign
aid had diminished sharply for third-world countries, providing no market force to improve third-
world markets and demonstrating how the idea of globalization fails to translate to third-world
countries” (Hammond, 2017). However, the aim of this paper is to critically examine two theories of
development (modernization and dependency) and its relation to the third world in global politics.
CRITICALLY EXAMINE VARIOUS POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MODERNIZATION AND DEPENDENCY
AS REGARDS TO THIRD WORLD IN GLOBAL POLITICS.

MODERNIZATION THEORY:
This theory is used to explain the process of various societies becoming modernized. It is a model of
a progressive transition from a ‘pre-modern ‘or ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ society. It focuses more on
a country’s internal factor while assuming that gradually, and with help, ‘traditional’ countries can be
brought to development in the same way as other developed countries.
“The theory of modernization coincides with several elements from the theory of globalization. The
teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that
has been generally followed by societies that have achieved modernity” (Maheshwari, 2016).
Furthermore, it seeks to contribute to social progress and the development of societies; it attempts
to explain the process of social evolution and also the responses that come along with the change.
Modernization theory argues that traditional countries can only develop if they adopt more modern
practices. C.E. Black defined modernization as, “Modernization is a process by which historically
evolved institutions are adapted to the rapidly changing functions that reflect the unprecedented
increase in man’s knowledge permitting control over his environment that accompanies the
scientific revolution”. Most authors are of the opinion that the Third World countries are traditional
and that Western countries are modern and so, for the traditional countries to develop, they believe
that traditional authors have to adopt the Western values.
Recently, modernization theory focuses more on how new technologies and systems are leading us
to a substantially united world. It can be said that the modernization theory includes the world of
globalization, in the sense that if achieved, cultural ideas would be easily spread throughout the
world, which will eventually lead to a kind of universal culture that will serve as a baseline for all
cultures(INSERT CITE). It is a process that transforms a society from its backward framework to a
forward looking, progressing and prospering structural build up.
Political modernization is used as an analytical tool to understand the effects of structural processes
on dayto-day policy-making by focusing on new relationships between state, civil society, and people
(Van Tatenhove, 1999). The political aspects of modernization have to do with the collection of
structural and cultural changes within the political system of modernizing countries (Nazmul, 2021).
However, there have been several critiques given about this theory especially in regards to the third-
world country. Development cannot be described as a set in stone, one-way progress. This is
because it is not entirely a unidirectional growth and this shows the ethnocentricity of Rostow’s
perspective. Also, the theory tends to majorly highlight the Western world (United States) as the
only benchmark or model of development. However, we have witnessed countries such as South
Korea and Taiwan become or still in the process of becoming developed through strong
authoritarian regimes (citation).
Also, the emphasis on the need to eliminate traditional values tend to make it more difficult for
them because most of the Third World countries do not have homogenous sets of tradition but
rather a greatly heterogeneous one. As a result of this, traditional and modern values are not always
mutually exclusive. A good example can be seen in China and Japan because despite advances in
economic development, they still maintain most of their traditional values. Moreover, it is not
possible to say that traditional values are always dichotomous from modern status. (citation)
However, some scholars argue that socioeconomic development could bring about certain,
predictable cultural change. Although not every aspect of the society will be subject to change and
made to adapt the western culture, it is extremely possible that there would be little ripple effects
that come with the subtle changes made to achieve modernization. (Inglehart & Baker 2000)
“Accentuate that on one hand, socioeconomic development brings predictable cultural changes in
people’s moral values; but on the other hand, these changes are path dependent, so that a society’s
initial starting position remains visible in its relative position to other societies, reflecting its cultural
heritage. Nevertheless, recent evidence indicates that – even though the relationship between
socioeconomic development and cultural change is reciprocal – the stronger causal arrow seems to
run from socioeconomic development to cultural change” (Inglehart & Welzel 2005).

DEPENDENCY THEORY:
Dependency theory emphasizes the recognized constraints imposed by the global political and
economic order in the bid to understand the reason for economic underdevelopment (Munro,
2018). “It mainly emphasizes the role of external relationships in the developmental process.
Relationships with developed countries especially with multinational corporations are viewed as
barriers. The theory believes that economic growth of a society is controlled by forces outside the
national economy” (Sonntag, 2001).
Dependency theorists are not opposing the fact that modernization took place, nor are they
disputing modernization as a goal for societies in the third world. They only claim that the global
power structure does not allow peripheral countries to modernize by integrating themselves into the
international division of labor. They strongly believe that developing countries should dissociate
themselves from the world market and any form of “auto centric development.” This is because the
theory strongly believes that due to the imbalance of world power and other factors such as
colonalization, neo-colonialism etc. the peripheral countries (third world countries) are being hugely
exploited. “Dependency theory states that the developing ‘dependent’ countries are already a part
of the global capitalist system and have been since the spread of colonialism. Modernization outlines
the pre conditions for successful development, assuming that the country that implements or strives
towards modernization is a 'blank page’ ready to industrialize.” (Romaniuk, 2017)
In conclusion, both the modernization theory and the dependence theory are referred to as
competitive theories. In the sense that while modernization insists that every traditional country
needs to adapt the western world as its model for development; the dependency theory insists that
the peripheral countries need to isolate itself from the influence of the core countries to help
facilitate its development.
Moles (1999) explained that dependency theory was developed as a criticism to the Modernization
theory. Andre Gunder Frank as cited in Marabuka (2008) analyzed the post-colonial state, and
believed that development theories such as modernity was failure prone because it fails to take into
consideration the realistic relationship between the Western world and the Third World countries.

CONCLUSION
However, it does not exempt the fact that the two theories are both focused on explaining and
provide solutions that can aid developing countries advance in development. “Dependence theory
depends on classical economic theory that individuals are rational economic actors different in their
behavior and situation and the modernization theory is dependent on a theory that all nations
follow a determined historical pathway.
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