Political Science

The chapter
Explanations of Underdevelopment from the book Promises not Kept and the introduction of The Great Transformation explained the relationships of the society, the market, the government, and their effects on each other towards progress.

John Isibitser (Explanations of Underdevelopment) used the theories of Modernization, Dependency and Marxism to explain the causes of underdevelopment in third world countries. According to the Theory of Modernization, the poor countries lack capital, technology, democratic institutions and the will to find ways to fill in that lack, makes the third world countries poor (Isbister). Dependency theorists on the other hand view the underdevelopment of third world countries as a process involving not only of the third world country, but also those capitalist countries upon whom the poor countries depend on. These countries have used the poor countries resources to cope with the world markets demands for ages. Marxist theorists are similar to Modernization theorists because they view progress as something that comes from within the society. However unlike the modernization theorists, Marxists puts focus on the class structures in poor countries and how the distribution of surplus brings about exploitation and progress as well.

The introduction of The Great Transformation, by Fred Block, explained the clarification of Karl Polanyis view on Embeddedness, which the society is not fully dependent to the economy but instead the economy is dependent to how the society operates. Furthermore, he stresses that the total disembedding or disconnection of the economy from the society is impossible because in order for the disconnection to be done, the nature of humans, the society and the environment should be destroyed. The first great transformation he referred to in the text is the rise of fascism which was caused by the promotion of market liberalism. This first great transformation caused another great transformation, the great depression, which caused great economic disorder in the world.

Comparison and Contrast
The similarity of the articles is the highlighting of the relationship of the economy to the society, its surroundings and the state. Block insisted Polanyis stress on the dependence of the rise and fall of the economy to the society and the state. Polanyi started with identifying two types of commodities fictitious and real commodities. Real commodities are those which are made for the purpose of production. Humans and nature, being important parts of production, should not be treated as objects and commodities because they react actively towards how they are being treated unlike the non-living components of the market, real commodities. Isbisters view on this aspect is related to his stand on Marxism. According to him, class struggle features the treatment of the working class as mere commodities. In Marxism, the working class, when it realizes that it is being treated badly, shall fight the capitalists and will fight for change in the social order. This fight could be a long and difficult process towards socialism. Another example is Isbisters stand on the modernization theory. He said that the hesitation of traditional societies to accept change in their ways of production and carrying out their everyday processes greatly affected their underdevelopment, their development and growth. Both theorists also said that an ideal system and elimination of poverty is impossible.

The difference however is how each theorist said and concluded their claims. Block used the concept of market liberalism to say that it is not the market that fully controls itself and the society, but the market should be the one under the society to achieve progress.  He ended with a resolution that the market should be under the control of human beings using democratic governance. Isbister used a number of theories to explain the underdevelopment of third world societies to get a conclusion and a resolution. He claimed that the development of an economy is affected by both international and national phenomenon however, the third world poverty is a result of an international affair. How the third world countries functions is because of the rules set by the great powers of the world economy (Isbister).

Implications
Isbister and Block clearly imply that the society and how it operates has a great impact towards the movement of an economy. It is a living organism which reacts to everything placed on it by either the market or the international community. Theories may provide us with solutions and insights but most end results are difficult to attain because the world or the societies of the world are perhaps not in the right state or condition for such results. Their conclusions are both open ended, meaning, no clear predictions were set. This basically means a sense of how dynamic the status of the society or for that matter, of mans ways is. Social action is the individuals or mans action and the product of how the individual or a man thinks. If this context would be considered, the implication that the operation of the society is dynamic would be justified.

Mostly, what the articles imply is that a single solution to resolve and uplift the status of the economies of the world would not be enough and will not eliminate all hindrances towards progress. Not only combined insights of the intellectuals on the field of Political Science and all other faculties are important, but also combined efforts from the state, the society and the market could entail progress.