Walt Whitman Rostow Stages of Economic Growth

Walt Whitman Rostow Stages of Economic Growth

W.W. Rostow Stages of economic Growth Analysis

Walt Whitman Rostow was a United States economist and political theorist. His theory that this analyzes is his theory on the stages of growth. In 1960 Rostow published The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non Communist Manifesto, which proposed the Rostovian take-off model of economic growth, one of the major historical models of economic growth, which argues that economic modernization occurs in five basic stages of varying length.
Rostow argued that economic take-off must initially be led by a few individual sectors. This criticizes Marxist revolutionaries’ push for economic self-reliance because it pushes for the initial development of only one or two sectors instead of the development of all sectors equally.

1. Traditional society
• characterized by subsistence agriculture or hunting & gathering; almost wholly a "primary" sector economy
• limited technology;
2. Preconditions for take-off
• external demand for raw materials initiates economic change;
• development of more productive, commercial agriculture & cash crops not consumed by producers and/or largely exported
• widespread and enhanced investment in changes to the physical environment to expand production (i.e. irrigation, canals, ports)
• individual social mobility begins
• development of national identity and shared economic interests
3. Take-off
• manufacturing begins to rationalize and scale increases in a few leading industries, as goods are made both for export and domestic consumption
• textiles & apparel are usually the first "take-off" industry, as happened in Great Britain's classic "Industrial Revolution"
4. Drive to maturity
• diversification of the industrial base; multiple industries expand & new ones take root quickly
• manufacturing shifts from investment-driven (capital goods) towards consumer durables & domestic consumption
• rapid development of transportation infrastructure
• large-scale investment in social...

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