Development Strategies: Economic Growth vs. Human Well-being

Post-WWII Development Agenda - Fostering economic development and addressing poverty are key concerns of postwar International community - After European construction, world bank set up with this explicit goal - Efforts globally rest upon a specific understanding of development and its causes Defining Development - Modernization theory/Orthodox model - Dominant mode of thinking about development by governments and international Organizations after WII - Development synonymous with economic growth within context of a free market Economy - Countries that do not have adequate wealth must spur economic growth following Largely the same path as major economic powers found in Global North - Economies will reach a takeoff point of wealth creation, then benefits will trickle down To population as a whole The Washington Consensus - Set of domestic policy prescriptions emerging out of this orthodox thinking promoted by Policymakers and organizations like the world bank - Examples of Washington consensus preferred policies - Trade liberation - Fiscal discipline - Privatization

- Deregulation - Tax reform Alternate Thinking on Development - Emerges as a reaction to the narrow, orthodox view focused on economics - Development should focus solely on economics but on human development - Focus on material and nonmaterial basic needs - Development strategies should come from within societies - Development must be environmentally sustainable - Development is about structural transformation