THEORIES OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION: THE ROSTOW CHALLENGE
| Date | 01 November 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1959.tb00112.x |
| Author | S. G. Checkland |
| Published date | 01 November 1959 |
SCOTTISH
JOURNAL
OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY
NOVEMBER
1960
THEORIES
OF
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION
:
THE ROSTOW CHALLENGE
I
THE world has lately been presented, with a new way
of
viewing
economic growth and, indeed, recent human experience.
So
reveal-
ing is the recent work
of
Professor W. W. Rostowl
of
many trends_
in the modern western mind and
so
welcome
is
it
as an attempt to
I
fill up a very great gap
in
our comprehension
of
affairs both past and
present, that
it
reopens the ancient question of the ability of humans
to understand their condition and the fosces that work upon them,;
Beginning with his classic studies of the economy
of
Britain in the
19th century, Rostow's thinking has become
so
broad, both explicitly
and by implication, that
in
spite
of
modest disclaimers, he is not
merely involved in
a
grand attempt at economic explanation but has
taken the initiative in the vast and tantalising debate about historical
causation.
The demand is now very strong for meaningful statements about
the broader course
of
human affairs. Many
of
those who speculated
about such matters in earlier generations
in
the West did
so
from the
point
of
view
of
their own culture, driven by misgivings about its in-
ternal decay
or
breakdown. This internal probkm has by no means
disappeared. Today the sense
of
cumulative and unpredictable
growth,
so
conspicuously absent in the depression
of
the 1930s,
is
strong upon us.
But perhaps internal
fears
have taken second place in the thoughts
of
the
West
to
consideration
of
what
is
happening elsewhere. What-
The
Stages
of
Economic Growth
:
A
Non-Communist Manifesto,
Cam-
bridge Univ. Press. 1960. Anticipated
in
The Economist,
15 August, 1959,
p.
409,
22
August 1959, p. 524. see also
Industridisation and Economic Growth
in Contributions and Communications
to
the First International Conference
of
Economic Historians,
Stockholm,
1960,
p.
35.
1
169
170
S.
G.
CHECKLAND
ever success the West may or may not have enjoyed in understanding
the course
of
its own development, it is now a historical fact that other
societies, driven by the imperative that they have some kind of chart,
are subscribers to a theory
of
history and the economy, that of
Marx.
With Russia and China? and other countries,
thus
compulsively and
perhaps compulsorily provided with a historical thesis of the broadest
scope, in which the economic element is dominant, it is appropriate
that the West should review its own position in this respect. For
grand historical theses are among the most important of modern im-
ports. Societies newly embarked upon industrialisation must seek to
relate themselves to the rest of the world not only in trading terms,
but also
in
terms
of
ideas. It is impossible in the present state of
the world to adopt a purist’s attitude toward the universal historical
thesis. We must come to terms with such attempts either by accepting
a
thesis from abroad, formulating our own, or by making and
sus-
taining the case for eclecticism and tentativeness.
I1
In spite of the danger of doing injustice to Professor Rostow, a
summary of his position is called for.
In
the briefest possible terms
his theory consists
of
five Stages and three choices.
‘
It is possible,’
he says ‘to place all societies within one of five economic categories.’
There
is
first the traditional society within which change is taking
place, but of a kind which in one way
or
another is assimilated
so
that
no cumulative irreversible renovation of society occurs. Essentially
the level of productivity is limited by the absence of modern science;
men do not think systematically about the natural world, or do not
apply their discoveries. Agriculture is overwhelmingly dominant, ab-
sorbing
75
per cent. or more of the labour force, and land-owning
is the source of wealth and power. The traditional society, may, how-
ever, suffer disturbance and enter
upon
a transitional phase, in which
‘
the foundations for change are being laid,’ or in which ‘the pre-
conditions for take-off’ are established. The control of resources
passes from traditionalist rent receivers into the hands
of
a new group
of
activists who wish to try new ventures in trade and industry. Such
men will be applying the ideas of other men as well as their own to
the manipulation of nature. They will give rise to new enterprises and
new forms of social organisation.
In
the case
of
most societies there
See E.
Stuart Kirby.
Introduction
to
the Economic History
of
China,
1954,
for
an
account
of
the role
of
ideology
in
the greatest
of
modern revolu-
tions.
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