Measuring Underdevelopment: Factors and Theories

Characteristics of Underdeveloped Countries

Development is often defined as the process which helps in creating progress, growth and positive change in one self or in the society and environment. According to scholars, the development in terms of countries is mainly referred to working towards achieving living standards, equality, economic performance and sustainability (Kitova et al 2016). Underdevelopment generally means when the process of making progress is stagnant and instead of positive growth there is negativity in one self or in the environment or the society. In terms of a country it is somewhat similar where scholars have stated that underdevelopment in a country means the development but at a very low level of development which is generally characterized by the low income of people, poverty, the low level in the literacy rate, low life expectancy and also the underutilization of the resources which are present and many more (Cuervo-Cazurra and Ramamurti 2017).

According to Handelman, the most common characteristics of countries that are underdeveloped can help in measuring underdevelopment. According to him, one of the most salient characteristics of underdevelopment is poverty (Handelman and Rex 2019). He states that at the grassroot level, underdevelopment is considered to be the combination of unequal distribution of income, low income per capita, very poor infrastructure which also includes transportation and communication and also the limited use of technology. These highly help in measuring underdevelopment. There are other factors that help in measuring underdevelopment according to the author are substandard housing, widespread scarcity, inadequate nutrition, low education and literacy level and people in living in poor health conditions.

I agree with the how Handelman has provided the factor which help in measuring underdevelopment. I believe that development of a country means the overall development from the high currency rate, good economic growth and also the social well-being of the people or citizens of the country in terms of their quality of life, education and literacy rate life expectancy and many more. A country can be called developed when it successfully manages to look after the overall development of the country. For example, the United States of America is considered to be one of the most developed countries because of the good policies in terms of their economy and the social reforms which paves way for the overall development of the country like less social issues, less rate of poverty and illiteracy, less unemployment rates, has one of the highest rate of currency and many more which develop economically as well as socially.

Measuring Underdevelopment

The theory of modernization is basically underpinned with the idea of development as a consistent growth. According to scholars, modernization basically defines as the path towards a proper and well developed industrial society (Hout 2016). On the other hand, dependency theory states that the present state of underdevelopment or underdeveloped countries in many nations across the world can be explained by examining and monitoring the patterns of the interactions among the nations and by arguing the fact that inequality among those nations in an integral aspect of the conversations (Tausch 2018).

Using the modernization theory of development a country through economic transformation can experience economic growth which allows the underdeveloped countries to catch up with the developed countries on the other hand dependency theory shows how there is a disparity among the developed and the underdeveloped countries and how the resources flow from the periphery of the underdeveloped and the poor states in terms of social and economic factors and then goes to the core states and countries that are developed and wealthy which helps in enriching the latter countries at expense of the underdeveloped and the poor countries.

I believe that the dependency theory does provide a good understanding of development as it reflects on the reality of the structure where the rich countries does exploit the poor countries and dominates them for their own good resulting in social and economic disparities. Majority of the developed countries are highly dependent on underdeveloped countries in terms of resources, exports and various other facilities which help in developing their economy and the overall development.

The theory of modernization is somewhat vague because its states that an underdeveloped country should have an economic transformation like setting up industries however it is important to see that how the underdeveloped countries do not have sufficient economy and thus are dependent on the powerful and the exports to the developed countries. Economic transformation is a very expensive process and would take a country several years to establish high quality infrastructure without having negative impacts on the society to successfully compete with the developed countries.

References

Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro, and Ravi Ramamurti. "Home country underdevelopment and internationalization." Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal (2017).

Handelman, Howar and Brynan Rex 2019. "Challenges of the Developing World". Google Books. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PnJ9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=what+are+the+ways+underdevelopment+can+be+measured+handleman&ots=oVZMCuOdfI&sig=3aviYupXMrJv-4qLeAYnDYMf5-4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=what%20are%20the%20ways%20underdevelopment%20can%20be%20measured%20handleman&f=false.

Hout, Wil. "Classical approaches to development: Modernisation and dependency." In The Palgrave Handbook of International Development, pp. 21-39. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016.

Kitova, Olga Victorovna, Igor Borisovich Kolmakov, Ludmila Pavlovna Dyakonova, Olga Alekseevna Grishina, Tamara Petrovna Danko, and Vladimir Dmitriyevich Sekerin. "Hybrid intelligent system of forecasting of the socio-economic development of the country." International Journal of Applied Business and Economic Research 14, no. 9 (2016): 5755-5766.

Tausch, Arno. "Globalisation and development: the relevance of classical “dependency” theory for the world today." International Social Science Journal 68, no. 227-228 (2018): 79-99.