Walter Rostow developed this model - a liberal model that postulates that economic modernization occurs in five basic stages: Stage 1: Traditional Stage 2: Preconditions for takeoff Stage 3: Takeoff Stage 4: Drive to Maturity Stage 5: Age of Mass Consumption. What is this model called?

• A. Modernization Model
• B. Dependency Theory
• C. World-Systems Theory
• D. Neoclassical Growth Model

Answer: (A)

This is Rostow’s staged approach to economic development, a modernization theory that sees a country moving through a linear sequence of five stages from traditional society to a highly developed, mass-consumption economy. The stages trace a path where investment, modernization of institutions, and expanding production eventually shift the economy from agriculture-based activity to diverse, technology-driven industry and finally to widespread consumer affluence.

The liberal aspect comes through in the emphasis on market-led growth, rising investment, and external commercial ties as the engines of progress, with government playing a facilitating role rather than directing development.

So this model is called the Modernization Model because it presents development as a progressive, orderly transformation of an economy toward modern, market-oriented structures and high consumer standards of living.

Other theories differ in focus: Dependency Theory and World-Systems Theory stress unequal global relationships and core-periphery dynamics rather than a unified five-stage path, while the Neoclassical Growth Model centers on capital, technology, and steady-state growth rather than a stage-by-stage modernization narrative.