THE EVOLVING DEVT PARADIGMS

INDUSTRIAL-LED GROWTH
PARADIGM

• For much of the 1950s & early

1960s, development policy was
dominated by the paradigm of
industrial-led growth.
• Influenced by successes in
reconstruction following
WWII, the paradigm called
for capital-intensive
industrialization.
• In those decades, Rostow’s (1960)
linear stages theory held that
development proceeds in linear path &
the world’s poor countries could
achieve progress by following the
steps of the economically more
advanced nations.
• The paradigm assumes that the benefits
of industrial expansion were to ripple
quickly throughout the economy --
providing the most effective way of
transforming traditional societies into
modern industrial & urban-based
economies.
 AGRICULTURE-LED DEVT
PARADIGM

• By mid-1960s, a number of
development practitioners
advanced the idea that
agriculture was an important
and potentially dynamic sector.
• This view became more
widespread in the early
1970s as evidence of failure
in industrial “trickle down”
started to accumulate.
• Support for agriculture-led paradigm was
associated with a growing concern for the
intractability of rural poverty.

• Proponents include: Mellor (1976) and

Johnston & Kilby (1975) of Cornell &
Stanford.
• Mellor et. al. argued that since
agriculture is a dominant economic
activity in most developing countries,
investment in this sector would have
the most widespread beneficial effects,
and provide a sounder basis for
national development.
 SUB-NAT’L OR REGIONAL DEVT
PARADIGM

• Regional scientists & geographers such as

Isard (‘75), Alonso & Friedmann (‘75),
Richardson (‘78), and Rondinelli & Ruddle
(‘78) brought an additional dimension to
the discontent with the results of earlier
approaches.
• They noted vast inequalities among
regions.
• Thus, they suggested that on political
& economic grounds, sustained
growth is impossible unless the various
regions are integrated into the
development process.
 RURAL-URBAN LINKAGE
DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM

• Meanwhile, alarming statistical

evidence began accumulating
concerning urbanization process.
• Enormous & rapidly growing
proportions of the poor were relocating
to the cities.
• That raises the question on how to
create rural alternatives for people
contemplating migration to
metropolitan areas, at same time
create economic opportunities for
the growing urban population.
• By mid-1980s, it was accepted
in the development community
that urban and rural area
development are closely
interwoven or are inextricably
related.
• Proponents argue that the
availability of nearby markets
& urban settlements are
necessary for broad-based
agricultural development.
• At same time, the viability of
enterprises performing such functions
in the nearby urban centers depends
upon growing local demand associated
with increasing incomes of many
households in the surrounding areas.
• Although its inception was in
1973, it was not until 1985 that
“rural-urban linkages” became the
buzzwords in the development
literature and in the agenda of the
development community.
 The Philippine’s Interest in
Rural-Urban Linkages (RUL)

• The earliest articulation of the

Philippine’s concern for strengthening
RUL can be gleaned from its key
regional development strategies (See
Ch 2, MTPDP, 1987-1992) which
include the following:
• Rural development & rural
employment promotion;
• Desirable regional population
distribution;
• Regional dispersal of industries; &
• Development of urban settlements
• On the “Development of urban
settlements”, the MTPDP
emphasized that consistent with
the priority accorded to rural
development, attention will be
given to:
• small & medium urban
centers which will provide
inputs and services to the
surrounding rural areas.
• The need to LINK rural areas to urban
centers (especially in the delivery of
inputs for agricultural development &
the provision of non-farm
employment) highlights the
complementarity of rural & urban
areas.
• Thus, with the focus on small and
medium-sized cities as service centers
to their rural catchment areas,
government shall adopt a policy
leading to a decentralized pattern of
urbanization.
• Key to a decentralized urbanization
strategy is ROAD NETWORK (RN).
• RN is crucial in increasing
accessibility, linking centers,
distributing agricultural inputs &
consumer goods, and in collecting
agricultural outputs.
 SUSTAINABLE DEVT PARADIGM

• Environment & Sustainable

Development became a dominant
theme in the development agenda since
the Brundtland Commission Report
entitled: Our Common Future was
published in April 1987 by Oxford
University Press.
• The Brundtland Commission Report
defines Sustainable Development as
development that meets the needs of
the present generation without
compromising the ability of the
future generations to meet their own
needs.
• The Report elaborated two (2)
concepts tied to the process of SD,
as follows:
1. The Basic Needs of Humanity; &
2. The Limits to Development
1. The Basic Needs of Humanity for
food, clothing, shelter, and jobs
must be addressed. This means
paying attention to the unmet needs
of the world’s poor.
2. The limits to development are not
absolute but are imposed by the
present state of technology & social
organization and by their impacts
upon the biosphere’s ability to absorb
the effects of human activities.
In sum, SD requires the ff:
1. A political system that secures effective
citizen participation;
2. An economic system that generates
surpluses & technical knowledge on a
self-reliant and sustainable basis;
3. A social system that provides solutions for
the tensions arising from disharmonious
development;
4. A production system that
preserves the ecological base for
development;
5. A technological system that can
search continuously for new
solutions;
6. An international system that
fosters sustainable patterns of
trade and finance; and
7. An administrative system that is
flexible and has the capacity for
self-correction.