W.W. Rostow, American economic historian described the
transformation of countries from underdevelopment to development in
terms of stages of growth. He is of the view that all countries must pass
through the following stages.
1) The traditional society ;
2) The transitional society ;
3)The take- off stage ;
4) The mature stage and ;
5) The age of high mass consumption
The traditional society will be custom-bound and tradition-oriented.
There will be economic backwardness. The poor countries of today are
good examples of traditional society. In short, the factors which are
essential for economic growth will be missing from such a society.
In the transitional society, the conditions for take-off stage will be
established. During this stage, the force of customs and traditions will
become less ; there will be economic motivation, and there will be
improvements in physical and social infrastructure. When once an
economy attains the take–off stage, there will be self – sustaining growth.
The take-off stage refers to a situation where an economy transforms
itself from a predominantly agricultural to a predominantly industrial
society. For an economy to attain the take-off stage, it must make an
annual investment equal to 20 – 25 percent of GDP mobilized from its
own savings. The take-off stage was made possible in some countries
by leading sectors like railways and defence. After the take- off stage,
when the economy attains self sustaining growth, it enters the mature
stage. During this stage, the government has to make some basic decisions.
As there will be abundant resources and goods, it has to divide whether
it has to use them for strengthening the nation into a strong and powerful
state militarily or to use the resources for improving the welfare of the
people. The final stage is the age of high mass consumption. During this
period, people will consume all kinds of goods especially durable goods
like cars on a mass scale.
Rostow's stages of economic growth are only broadly true. All nations
have not gone through the order in which he has described the stages.
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