Page 301 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes Jaffe and Stewart (1951), who described economic development as “rationalisation of economic
production”, have given a dichotomy of developed and underdeveloped countries on the basis of per
capita income and factors like high literacy, high expectation of life at birth and low fertility, low
proportion of labour force engaged in agriculture, and high production of kilowatts of electricity per
capita. Besides these, we may add a third category to this classification, that of a country which is in
between the developed and the underdeveloped countries, that is, the developing country. In terms
of the per capita income, the United States, Canada, Australia and western Europe (Italy, France,
Germany, England) are considered to be developed countries. On the other hand, South Africa, Mexico
and most of the southern and eastern European countries are developing countries. India too, in
terms of its per capita income, is a developing country.
Jaffe and Stewart have said that economic development entails changes in everything at once to
achieve the above characteristics (of developed countries). But, Robert Faris believes that this conclusion
(of achieving everything at once for economic development) is not justified. He thinks that though its
proximate measurement will be taken as an increase in real income per capita, yet all other changes
would depend upon the degree of requiredness.
Determinants of and Barriers to Economic Development

The factors that are generally believed to contribute to economic growth of a society are: natural resources,
capital accumulation, technology, sources of power, manpower, labour force, characteristics of population
and its economic organisation, and social environment. According to Faris (1964:890), the important
prerequisites of economic development are: (i) values or ideology; (ii) institutions or normative complexes,
that is, unanimously accepting and following the rules of conduct or normally sanctioned prescriptions
for behaviour; (iii) organisation (polities), that is, whether the government wants to promote public
sector or private sector or both; and (iv) motives (incentives) pertaining to profit/prestige. Gunnar
Myrdal (1968:1942) in his three volumes of Asian Drama, in which he has analysed poverty and
development of the countries of South Asia, has pointed out six important factors affecting development:
output and income, conditions of production, levels of living, attitude towards life and work, institutions,
and politics. The first three refer to economic factors, the next two to non-economic factors, and the last
one to a mixed category. Myrdal has maintained that the economic factors are significant and decisive.
Novack (1964:156) holds that chief criteria of underdevelopment are scarcity of capital, low industrial
population and lack of natural resources. On the other hand, the prerequisites of economic
development include capital, quality of technology, and natural resources. He further maintains that
the factors which impede economic growth in the underdeveloped areas are: (i) lack of sufficient
quantity of innovation, (ii) lack of agrarian reform, (iii) lack of discipline, (iv) population growth, and
(v) foreign exchange shortages.
Jacob Viner (see, Jean Meynaud, 1963) has also referred to six barriers to economic development.
These are: unfavourable physical environment, low quality of working population, scarcity of technical
knowledge, scarcity of capital, rapid growth of population, and defects in agrarian structure.
In Europe, the Protestant Reformation paved the way for the rise of capitalism and growth by changing
the outlook of society and its institutions. Along this line developed the ‘Protestant Ethic’ which was
conducive to economic growth. Writing about this European occurrence, Max Weber emphasised the
institutions of capitalistic society that have accompanied rapid economic development in the West:
(1) private ownership and control of the means of production; (2) barriers and government price-
fixing; (3) the reign of calculable law, enabling people to know in advance under what rules they
operate in economic life; (4) freedom of individuals to work for wages; (5) ‘commercialism’ of economic
life through a market system of wages and prices to mobilise and allocate productive resources; and
(6) speculation and risk taking (which had been largely prevented in the preceding feudal societies).
However, some scholars have referred to some holes in this thesis.
Obstacles to Economic Development in India

The above mentioned factors can also help in understanding obstacles to economic development in
India. According to Thomas Shea (see, Jean Meynaud, 1963), the four important barriers to economic

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