Development as an Ideology: An Evaluation of the Modernization Theories from the Context of Samuel Huntington and Claude Ake

Abstract

The investigations undertaken by scholars in behavioral sciences to understand the socio-economic and political quagmires of Third world countries lies at the heart of this study. Of particular importance to this discourse is the challenge of building adequate empirical evidence on the way forward for Third world growth, development and sustainability. Thus this paper examines development as an ideology while evaluating the modernization theories from the context of Samuel Huntington and Claude Ake, bringing out their peculiarities. The study argues that all supposedly meaningful theoretical expositions put forward by scholars on both ends have further plunged Third world economies into the umbrella of global capital characterized by domination, alienation and inequality in both character and contents. The paper uses secondary data as its methodology; hence the work is basically explorative and entails survey of broader and empirical studies of major schools of thought in social science literatures.

Keywords: Development, Ideology, Modernization, Capitalism, Inequality.