Review Paper : The Stages of Economic Growth
After the World War II, the idea of ‘development’ became major concern of many countries and international organizations. Many researchers try to figure out how development works and how this process could help modernization process in the world. Walt Whitman Rostow in his article ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ also try to figure out how economic develops. In his article, Rostow (1959) argues that economic growth in modern world is not a continuum process, but it is a historical sequence that moves from traditional stage to an age of high mass consumption. His argument is interesting, but I am not fully agree with his argument because his argument and explanation in the article contains several …show more content…
Firstly, there is a doubt that his theory of stages in economic growth could be applied universally. In his theory, Rostow generalizes the stage of economic growth by focusing more in investment and development of the leading sectors because these sectors play the major role in uphold the overall momentum of economy. In addition, his theory is also based on situation in certain countries especially in Western countries (Ohlin & Gustafsson 1961). These two conditions make this theory probably hard to be applied in every country in the world because it seems like this theory only give description of economic growth in Western countries (Ohlin & Gustafsson 1961). As Lenin said (as cited in Ohlin & Gustafsson 1961), to construct a theory of development that cover the entire world, it is important to use complete data that represent economic life in the whole world, not only specific countries or specific leading sectors. Every country has different social, political and economy issues, so how their economic grow, will be differ from one to …show more content…
According to the stage concept, a stage should include some criteria and variables that could explain the change in the course of development (Itagaki 2007). Successive stage criteria are important to determine the position of each country and to figure out their ability to move to the next stage. But, in this article, Rostow provide unclear criteria between stages. For example: between pre-condition for take-off and the take-off stage, Rostow explains that the only distinction between those two stages is that in take-off stage, modern industrial techniques is self sustained, not an abortive process. How to make sure that a country has a self sustained modern industrial technique instead an abortive one. Rostow does not explain clearly how these two stages really differ from one to another. Moreover, Rostow also do not clearly explain how the stage of drive to maturity differs with the age of high mass consumption. To make it worse, Itagaki (2007) added that Rostow has made a mistake by considering the transitional period (pre-condition for take-off) as a stage. Itagaki (2007) also added that Rostow loss confidence in using stage concept in the last stages ( the age of high mass consumption), because he do not use the term of ‘stage’ in here. Therefore, Itagaki (2007) suggest that Rostow should reduce his stages of economic growth into the simple
After the World War II, the idea of ‘development’ became major concern of many countries and international organizations. Many researchers try to figure out how development works and how this process could help modernization process in the world. Walt Whitman Rostow in his article ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ also try to figure out how economic develops. In his article, Rostow (1959) argues that economic growth in modern world is not a continuum process, but it is a historical sequence that moves from traditional stage to an age of high mass consumption. His argument is interesting, but I am not fully agree with his argument because his argument and explanation in the article contains several …show more content…
Firstly, there is a doubt that his theory of stages in economic growth could be applied universally. In his theory, Rostow generalizes the stage of economic growth by focusing more in investment and development of the leading sectors because these sectors play the major role in uphold the overall momentum of economy. In addition, his theory is also based on situation in certain countries especially in Western countries (Ohlin & Gustafsson 1961). These two conditions make this theory probably hard to be applied in every country in the world because it seems like this theory only give description of economic growth in Western countries (Ohlin & Gustafsson 1961). As Lenin said (as cited in Ohlin & Gustafsson 1961), to construct a theory of development that cover the entire world, it is important to use complete data that represent economic life in the whole world, not only specific countries or specific leading sectors. Every country has different social, political and economy issues, so how their economic grow, will be differ from one to …show more content…
According to the stage concept, a stage should include some criteria and variables that could explain the change in the course of development (Itagaki 2007). Successive stage criteria are important to determine the position of each country and to figure out their ability to move to the next stage. But, in this article, Rostow provide unclear criteria between stages. For example: between pre-condition for take-off and the take-off stage, Rostow explains that the only distinction between those two stages is that in take-off stage, modern industrial techniques is self sustained, not an abortive process. How to make sure that a country has a self sustained modern industrial technique instead an abortive one. Rostow does not explain clearly how these two stages really differ from one to another. Moreover, Rostow also do not clearly explain how the stage of drive to maturity differs with the age of high mass consumption. To make it worse, Itagaki (2007) added that Rostow has made a mistake by considering the transitional period (pre-condition for take-off) as a stage. Itagaki (2007) also added that Rostow loss confidence in using stage concept in the last stages ( the age of high mass consumption), because he do not use the term of ‘stage’ in here. Therefore, Itagaki (2007) suggest that Rostow should reduce his stages of economic growth into the simple