Postcolonial Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Postcolonial Development - Essay Example Development theories attempt to explain the changes in societies and to provide the tools that can be applied to societies to move them to a better situation or one that is thought to be a better situation. Development has always had an economic connotation, as the Gross National Product (GNP) of the country has been historically used as a measure for growth and development. During the 1950s and 1960s, development initiatives assumed that the "successful methods, techniques, and ways of solving problems and delivering services in the U.S. or other economically advanced countries would prove equally successful in the developing nations." [Rondinelli, Dennis A. et al] So, from the very beginning the developed world and theoreticians progressed on the basis of 'direct transferability' of a successful process. During the 1970s, the European and American multinational companies made a foray into the developing world. With extending their own markets, these MNCs also threatened the indigenous industries in these countries. These events gave rise to two theories - the Dependency Theory and the Center Periphery or Metropolis-Satellite Theory. According to dependency theorists such as Paul Baran, Andre Gunther Frank and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, developing countries