The Concept of Development

The term development is used in a variety of ways. Make a list for yourself of different sentences containing the word and look at what sort of meaning the term might have. You might like to compare your list with mine at Uses of the term. You will see that I stress how development is historically situated.

Pre-Development Stage

It tends to be assumed that development is a good thing. The fact that societies are seen to develop and that economic development is something to praise is contained in phrases such as 'Less Developed Countries' (LDCs) when put beside 'the developed world'! In fact the term development is closely linked to the mergence of capitalism and the criticism of the older feudal societies it replaced.

Before the emergence of capitalism agricultural societies had forces of production that changed very slowly. Economic output was relatively stagnant. Capitalism permitted productive forces to advance rapidly and so introruced notions of material progress and development. Look at the WEB sites of the IMF and the World Bank to see how the term 'development' captures this sense of capitalism.

The bourgeoisie sought political struggle to break down serfdom and to undermine the system of land tenure. Consequently a number of medieval institutions were dismantled such as guilds and systems of tenure. It was these systems that slowed down productivity and restricted free trade. Usury or charging interest on a loan was not accepted in the medieval view as Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice or Marlowe's Jew of Malta make clear.

It was in the emergence of the bourgeoisie and the dismantling of fedualism that 'development' emerged. We should not see the transformation from feudalism to capitalism as an even or total process. However, historically the concept of development is not found before the rise of capitalism.

I shall follow Jorge Larrain's depiction of the historical development from competitivce capitalism through the age of imperialism to late capitalism. See Larrain (1989) Theories of Development.

Enter Adam Smith and Classical Political Economy

From approximately 1700 to 1860 capitalism was concerned with the production of goods for consumption produced by numerous small firms who used labour-intensive technologies and restricted forms of organization. The emerging industrial bourgeoisie was concerned with removing the feudal past and gaining political power.

Capitalism also spread across the world with British and European goods being exported across large tracts of the world. Marx identified this phase in the following terms:

during its first stages of development, industrial capital seeks to secure a market and markets by force, by the colonial system.

During this phase non-industrial countries (often termed peripheral) maintained control of raw material production and capital accumulation. We shall explore the emergence of colonialism separately.

As Larrain points out:

the thought of classical political economy arose to propound the idea that the development of productive forces or economic progress under the control of privately owned and increasingly accumulating capital was the natural course for humankind; it was only that in the past it had been obstructed by artifical fetters. The new conquering bourgeoisie and its ideological representatives in classical political economy were quite confident that once the artificial obstacles were abolished capitalism would impose itself as the only and absolutely necessary mode of production.
(1989: 5)

These ideas are explored through the work of Adam Smith and David Ricardo but before you check out your knowledge and understanding of these thinkers why not visit Approaching Political Economy to see how well you understand the principles of classical political economy.
TO BE CONTINUED