Exogenous and Endogenous Development

Exogenous development is a broad phrase meaning

development=modernization=westernization. This concept of
development emphasizes developing the country by using imported
technology, capital and human resources. In this approach to
development, external agencies/actors participate in development
process. Model of development is recommended by western experts or
local experts with western mentality. And since it is suggested by
western experts or by local scholars guided by western way of looking at
development, it is based on western context, which differs from local
context. Exogenous development was popular in the 1950s and 60s.

Endogenous development implies a refutation of the view of

development=modernization=westernization. Self-reliance, then does
not simply concern the means but the end of the development: the goals
and values of development are to be generated from within. 

That development is endogenous implies that “modernity” is viewed as

generated from within. Modernization then is not a matter of importing
foreign models but also the modernization of tradition. Imported
modernization means the destruction of existing social and cultural
capital…by contrast, modernization-from-within means the
revalorization and adaptation of existing social and cultural capital.

The concept of endogenous development is often linked to endogenous

industrialization processes, that is, to the economic dynamics of cities
and regions. At least two approaches can be identified among the
authors that investigate and theorize on endogenous industrialization,
one whose analyses are related to the organization of production and
another that considers endogenous industrialization one of the paths of
development for cities and regions. Both approaches acknowledge that
endogenous development is a paradigm that adequately interprets the
economic forces at work in cities and regions today. Thus, various
rationales and views of development converge in the theory of
endogenous development

The problem with development is that it is external, based on the model

of the industrialized world, and what is needed instead are more
endogenous discourse. The assertion of endogenous development calls
to mind dependency theory and the ‘foreign bad, local good’ position.

The difference between exogenous development and endogenous

development  
 Endogenous Development      Exogenous development
Use of local knowledge, capital and Import of western knowledge,
technology capital and technology
-Culture-friendly Imitation of western culture
Local people are experts of Western foreigners are experts
development of development
Development with cultural identity Development without cultural
identity
Modernization is generated from within Modernization is imported
from the western world
Based on the “foreign bad, local good” Based on the“foreign good,
position local bad” position