Modernisation

It is the process by which a nation "evolves" from a pre-industrial to a modern society on social, economic, and cultural levels. Countries must go through a sequence of five stages of growth. The conventional society, take-off conditions, take-off, the maturity drive, and high mass consumption People are considered modern in a country if they have political, economic, and social equality, as well as high literacy rates.

The failure of the modernization theory to resolve the underdevelopment of third-world countries has resulted in dependency. They are interested in the causes of underdevelopment and how it progresses.