Social programmes - ‘do they influence levels of development

Published on August 27, 2005 By Paul Bourne In Philosophy

Paul Andrew Bourne, M.Sc. (pending); B.Sc. (Hons.); Dip. Edu.

INTRODUCTION

Booth (1994) wrote that, “in the early 1980s there was a widely share sense that social research and theorizing about development had reached some kind of impasse.” He continued that “crucial real-world questions were not being addressed and the gulf between academic inquiry and the various spheres of development policy and practice had widened to the point where practitioners were raising fundamental doubts about the ‘relevance’ of academic development studies.” Hence, Booth’s viewpoint highlights a dimension of the development discourse that was intensified since the 1950s: as development is multi-faceted; and so cannot be conceptualized by scholars as a single one-dimensional phenomenon (Todaro, 2000; Hettne, 1995; Haq, 1987).

This discourse has taken on even a new persona in the last two (2) decades. Traditionally, this phenomenon was seen as primarily economic (Kurnets, 1989; Hogendorn, 1987). John Maynard Keynes is considered a pioneer in traditional economic development by many academics (Rapley, 1996) and he forwarded a perspective that development is fostered by economic growth. This is a change in the economic activities of a country due to an increase in the production of goods and service when saved over time (Beardshaw, 1992). This is, therefore, the primarily indicator for development. Keynes’ theorizing was adopted from Adam Smith’s early theorizing on development. Their views were that economic development was fostered by a smoothly operated capitalist economy (Rapley, 1996, p. 6-7).

According to Rapley (1996, p.7), “state interventions to relieve poverty would inhibit initiative, and would stifle investment because they would rely on increased taxes.” Dr. Rapley’s cited perspective is a clear indication of the stance taken by all traditional economists. This stance sees development as solely an economic growth phenomenon that is driven by the free market but many post World War II economists differ on a theorizing for this construct. Lewis concurred with classicalists like Smith and Keynes that development is primarily economic. Rapley (1996, p.16) stated that, “Lewis argued that in a Third World economy, the wage rate was set at a constant level as determined by minimum levels of existence in traditional family farming.” This ensured a virtually unlimited supply of cheap labour, which has an advantageous factor in industrial development (Rapley, 1996 p.16). As a social scientist who is concerned with development and its determinants, the researcher is cognizant of the different discourse on the issue but will analyze both schools of thought before coming to a consensus. This means that the researcher will take a particular theorizing to measure development for this paper.

The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS, 2002) in one of their reports wrote, “while material poverty affect a large number of households, the Report points to the impending dangers of more widespread and subtle forms of poverty that include poor health, inadequate levels of educational attainment; lack of economic assets or access to markets or jobs that could create the unsafe physical environment; and various forms of social exclusion.” This report forwards the core of the post-1950 scholars’ viewpoints on development that is broader than the Classicalists theorizing that was once the epistemological framework on development thoughts. The article points to other non-economic growth theorizing such as health care, education and other psychosocial conditions. Hence, the author will not seek to continue in the pre-1950s epistemological mindset as it is a one sided theorizing but will seek to quantify any validity of the contemporary developmentalists’ perspective on the issue as this include social, political and economic factors. This paper surrounds the social aspect to development in the form of expenditure on health care and expenditure on education with the intention of using those two (2) determinants of contemporary development in order to ascertain any causal and/or associational relationship between expenditure on social programmes and their influence on levels of development.

A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Adam Smith was the chief among many scholars who forwarded a theory on the determinants of development and their influence on peoples’ welfare. Smith and other economists within the classical school theorized that development was due to persistent economic growth. They argued that development is solely a function of economic growth [the example here is Development = F (Economic Growth)]. The pre-1950 developmental theorists were convinced that development was a single social science factor but Hettne (1995) forwarded a point of view that the fathers of development theory was ‘euro-centric’ (p.21).

Many persons inadvertently and incorrectly interchange the concepts economic growth and economic development as though they are synonyms. Economists posit that ‘economic growth’ is an increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a nation. GDP is the aggregate of all goods that are produced, distributed and consumed in an economy in a given year. As such, an increase entails the employment of more factors of production (land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship). Equally, G.D.P is the aggregate of the factor incomes. Apart from the definitional properties of G.D.P, the reader must understand a thorough understanding of this measurement of production in order that s/he is able to grasp the issues that will be critically presented in this paper.

Gross Domestic Product’s Growth does not automatically disaggregate into a share of production to each sector within the economy. The growth of the economy may entail all sectors getting proportionately more or proportionately less than other sectors. It has been the case on a wide scale that the owners of capital, the entrepreneurs, have been receiving significantly more of the GDP than the other participants. It is this disparity between the wage earners and the owners of capital that must be addressed in order to develop the human capital of the population as a whole. This is especially the case when capital is very unequally distributed. An increase in productive capacity of an economy may not have been for the general good of all peoples therein but may be due largely to small sub-sector of the populace.

Economic development, however, is significantly different from that of economic growth. In that, “Development in human society is a many sided process. At the level of the individual it implies increase in skill and capacity ………… and material well being”. Implicit in that definition is the accumulation of the surplus of individual firms. In order for this surplus to be meaningful as a human indicator of development and large enough to ensure the survival of firms and improve the standard of living of those employed by the firm, the surplus cannot be consumed after a day. If this is done, then the standard of living of the workforce will decline and this decline is concomitant with the lack of development in the domestic economy.

Economic growth in some economies can then be associated with immizerization, in that economic growth may result in misery. This occurs when economic growth causes a high proportion of the population to become impoverished while a smaller proportion accumulates substantial wealth. As such, this growth may lead to impoverishment of a sector or some sectors within the economy but this cannot be the case for economic development implies the improvement in human capital that is not important for growth.

From that School of thought, economic growth is the force behind any development of a society. The transformation of any society beyond its past is accounted for by the saving of resources from economic growth. Therefore, economic development is the transformation of the base of an economy. This is attained through physical infrastructural changes in that society. The Classical School believed that economic growth increases standard of living of the people. This is accomplish by the peoples being able to afford more of the same goods and-or better quality items. Furthermore, the Classical Theorists on the issue of economic development believed merely that this was an extension of conventional economic theory that equated "development" with growth and industrialization. Because of that construct, Latin American, Asian and African countries were seen mostly as "underdeveloped" countries that is, "primitive" versions of European nations that could, with time, "develop" the institutions and standards of living of Europe and North America.
On the other hand, the Modern Economists believe that development is broader than economic growth. Professor Michael Todaro purported that there are three (3) objectives of development. Firstly, they are “increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life – such as food, shelter, health, and protection. Secondly, to raise the levels of living, including, in addition to higher incomes, the better jobs, better education, and greater attention to cultural and humanistic values, all of which will serve not only to enhance material well-being also to generate greater individual and national self-esteem. Finally, he purported the expansion of social choices.” Based on Professor Todaro’s position on development, this includes the improvement in the quality of life of people through social, political and economic determinants.

SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL PROGRAMMES

It is quite a challenging when it comes to THE development issues. Many third world countries, those of Latin America and the Caribbean of which Jamaica is a part suffer from issues of development, poor health facilities, bad living conditions and infrastructural problems. Hag analytical argument is the focus on this paper. Despite Hag’s writings and analyses, the World Bank Report on World Development have shown that central government expenditures on health and education have declined in low developing countries. This was evident in the period 1980- 83 and 1985- 86. Could the question be asked then what are the main reasons for the poverty that surrounds third world peoples in particular?

Haq et al (1987,pp 21) in Human Development, Adjustment and Growth wrote, “The objective of ‘development’ is people.” Yet an examination of the improvement progress of people over the last four decades will show that one of the major obstacles to economic, social and political progress in many developing countries is the insufficient attention given to the human dimension of progress. The analytic argument of Haq et. Al. is the focal point of this paper as human development is a tool that can be used to measure the levels of development. When one analyses Haq’s writings (Haq et al., 1987: pp. 22 – 28) and the World Bank’s World Development Reports there are clear indications that that central government expenditures on health and education have declined in low developing countries between 1980-83 and 1985-86 and in the same breath, human development has increased. Despite the increases in levels of income in many countries, why many peoples within developing countries lack the food necessary for an active, healthy life? (Haq et al., 1987: pp. 29).

Therefore, the issue is can there be development without human development? According to Haq et al (1987: pp. 33), “The first session of the Roundtable on Money and Finance in Istanbul in September 1983 declared that, solutions which do not take into the human resources building into account will fail to provide an enduring answer to the world’s financial and monetary crisis.” Not until human capital that is needed for substantial economic growth is developed, real developments will remain a dream. With those profound and analytical arguments forwarded by Haq et al (1987) and others, and the argument that Jamaica’s economic poverty has been reduced. Chambers (1989) concurred with the perspective forwarded when wrote, “The past quarter century has been a period of unprecedented change and progress in the developing world. Yet despite this impressive record, some 800 million individuals continue to be trapped in what I have termed absolute poverty: .. (p.1).” Mohammed concurred with the post-1950 scholars. She said, “It seems to me that the essence of development is the capacity of a society to provide gainful employment for its population, and to satisfy basic needs such as food, housing, education and health care for all its population” (Modammed, 2000). Those positions set the premise upon which this paper will seek to theorize a scientific justification for expenditure on social programmes as relationship exist between public expenditure on health and education and its impact on human development.

Main Objective
1.0 To examine the relationship between the expenditure on social programmes and the levels of development.

Specific Objectives
1.1 To determine the relationship between public expenditure on education and the levels of development;
1.2 To ascertain whether or not if total expenditure on health positively impact on levels of development;

METHODS

CONCEPTUALIZATION

EXPENDITURE on HEALTH

WHO defines health as the “state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual?” The document goes on to show that it not merely the absence of disease and infirmity; rather it is a state of being.

EXPENDITURE on EDUCATION

Education can be defined as a combination of activities aimed at imparting instruction to another through instruction, teaching, and pedagogy and in activities. In this paper, emphasis will be placed primarily on pedagogy

LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT

In this study, the Human Development Index (HDI) will be the primary variable. The HDI measures human development in three dimensions. Life expectancy at birth looks to the health related development; while knowledge measures by the adult literacy rate deals with the educational aspect. The standard of living of the country looks to the economic development of the country.
“Development has been treated by economists as if it were nothing more than an exercise in applied economics, unrelated to political ideas, forms of government, and the role of people in society. It is high time we combine political and economic theory to consider not just ways in which societies can become more productive but the quality of the societies which are supposed to become more productive-the development of people rather than the development of things” (Professor of Development Economics: Michael P. Todaro, 2000).
This paper seeks to follow in the steps of Todaro and examine development as the degree of change in the political system, forms of governance, economic development and quality of life of people in a society.

QUALITY OF LIFE OF PEOPLE

Quality of life is the most fleeting of the terms used in the paper. Not a quantitative variable by any standard, this reflects the emotive side to development that is so often left out of the equation. This is to keep in mind that it is people who live in the space.

THE DEVELOPMENT DISOURSE, INTENSIFIES

“Development has been treated by economists as if it were nothing more than an exercise in applied economics, unrelated to political ideas, forms of government, and the role of people in society. It is high time we combine political and economic theory to consider not just ways in which societies can become more productive but the quality of the societies which are supposed to become more productive-the development of people rather than the development of things” (Professor of Development Economics: Michael P. Todaro, 2000). Therefore, for this paper, development is the degree of the political system, forms of governance, economic development and quality of life of people in a society.

Sustainable development was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Development in this context refers to societal as well as economic development. Sustainable development encompasses human welfare, economic growth, stability, environmental protection, and conservation. It seeks to meet the needs of the present while conserving resources for future generations.

Economists see economic growth as the creation to build the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within a specified time, usually twelve months. From that perspective, therefore development is the transformation of the foundation within an economy. In other words, the transformation of any modern society has its own record as to its achievement and utilizing well its limits resources from economic growth.

Classical theorists had the tendency to show a linkage towards conventional economic theory and “development” with growth and industrialization. Latin American however, perceived this idea, Asian and African countries as “underdeveloped countries.” It is worthwhile to remember Professor Todaro’s position on development that focuses on improvement in the quality of life of individuals through social, political and economic means.

Development today has taken on a new sphere in that in earlier time, it were viewed as an economic situation but today, academic development has taken on a much stronger view concerning social research.

In the early 1980s, there was a marked difference between social research and theories according to Booth (1994). He saw where critical world issues were not being dealt with and was leaving “skeptics” to wonder about the relevance of academics development studies. However, in this paper, the critical development issues discussed will be base on the views of Booth. In order to give a more comprehensive view in terms of research proposal, Jamaica will be using as reference to highlight health facilities and how these facilities improved or worsened as the population develops. During the 1970s, health facilities were greatly improved and as a result, the Infant Mortality Rate decreased from 32.5 per cent prior to 1970 to 11.3 per cent in 1980.

According to Social and Economic Survey of Living Condition, Jamaica had the second lowest infant mortality rate and the second highest life expectancy of the six countries studied.

Professor Rex Nettleford quotes that “Jamaica’s infant mortality and life expectancy levels have improved steadily to the point where the country’s health indicators are considerably above the third world norm moderately better than that for middle income countries and slightly below industrialized countries. In the case of infant mortality improvement, the arte of exchange in Jamaica matches that achieved in the United States of America over the 1938 to 1980 period and is considerably above that achieved in most middle income developing countries. Much of this is due to increased spending on health services as overall public spending increased.”

Professor Nettleford states that the health indicators have improved since 1938 and that the social position of Jamaicans has significantly improved. This he says is because of spending on health care services.

When individuals are malnourished, the health of these individuals would affect them in terms of their physical and mental states. A medical practitioner, Dalzell-Ward (1974: 23) commented, “The deprivation of energy foods’ will result in excessive fatigue which will in turn diminish social and work performances and interfere with well-being.” There is however, the indication of a level of development, where as if an individual is not in the best of health, this will contribute to fewer hours worked and reduced production. The economist Adam states that this would be an indication of reduced economic growth. Professor Todaro from his perspective, development envelopes social, political and economic changes in peoples lives. Another medical practitioner concurred with Dalzell –Ward (1974) when she said:
“In fact many of today’s problems with students are actually health related. Kids are not able to learn sufficiently if they are hungry, tired, hung-over form alcohol, or worried about violence. We need to eliminate barriers that affect students’ readiness to learn. A variety of physical and mental conditions impact students’ attendance and their ability to pay attention in class anger, and restrain from self-destructive impulses.”

Development economics is the study of how human economic circumstances change overtime and how they can also be made to change (Hogendorn, 1987: 1, pp. 1). This perspective by Hogendorn supports the traditionalist that development is primarily economic and that growth is the primary contribution towards development. Again the classical writers view development as the country’s ability to move forward in terms of building on certain assets it already has and to strengthen the capabilities it possessed.

Again, development forces us to view critically the environments position especially on issues of pollution, deforestation and depletion of the Ozone layer and the emission of dangerous green house gases. Agenda 21 paragraph 27 states that poverty eradication should be an overriding theme for the coming years. Poverty could endanger the social fabric, undermine economic development and threaten political stability in many developing countries. However, the researcher believes that there cannot be a total eradication of poverty, but instead, the efforts of the world organization such as the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) and the United Nations could drastically minimize poverty.

There are arguments by advocates who believe that economic development should be emphasized more than sustainable development. The focus presently encompasses social, economic and political factors along with the ‘push’ for the human factor and the quality of life.

Prominent sociologist agree that the church, school and peer group influence socialization and political institutions especially those which embrace modernized education systems will certainly enhance or embrace human and social capital ( Harlambus etal 1996).

An educated nation is indeed a healthy one. Against this background, CARICOM has undertaken public education to raise the awareness to sustainable development. They have been a commitment to support educational awareness on sustainable development. CARICOM is also committed to provide specific training and educational activities including technical exchange programmes.

Spikes (2002) posits: “poverty can be regarded as the inability to obtain the essentials of life; for others it is a matter of low income; for others a problem of social inequality”. He goes on to say that “poverty can be explained in terms of material conditions, that is basic needs, food, clothing,and shelter; however limited resource interfere with the ability to acquire the essentials. Poverty can be seen as exclusion; the European Union defines the poor as persons whose resources (material culture and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the member state in which they live depending on benefits as equivalents as claiming social assistance”.

It is frightening to say the least that despite efforts within the technological age people living abject poverty that retards the process in which many of these issues should have been addressed. Haralambus (1995)”poverty implies an undesirable social problem that a solution should be found. Basic amenities, for examples, shelter health and nutrition: the latter according to Drewnowski and Scott in Haralambus “is measured by factors in relation to the amount of calories and protein consumed by the individual. Shelter is measured by the quality of living arrangements (dwelling etc.) and health is measured by factors such as infant mortality and the quality of medical treatments available.

Finally, development, whether economic or sustainable is a continuing process. The success, which is noticeable, depends on the assistance given to developing countries by the developed counties and the ability of the developing counties the said resources.

CONCLUSION

Todaro and other researchers clearly show that development is influenced by social, economic, political factors and quality of governance within a country. In researching, I opted to investigate two social factors; these were selected in recognition of their singular importance in the process of development. The two (2) factors were total expenditure on education as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and public expenditure on education as percentage of Gross National Product (GNP), and their impact on levels of development.

The Classicist point of view is of the view that economic factors positively influence development. This was not studied in the paper. The view of the Classicists is not accepted for the purpose of this paper as, if one were to accept the Classicalists viewpoint that development is primary influenced by economic factors then there would be no relationship between socio-political factors and levels of development.

It has been shown that there is a strong positive relationship between the two social factors and levels of development. This falls in line with Freidman’s perspective that expenditure on education impacts on development. Furthermore, it can be argued that an increase in the level of public spending on education will significantly influence development of any country. The reverse is true, in if a small portion of a country’s GNP that is expended on education, the lower the level of development of that state. It should be reiterated that, public expenditure on education strongly affects levels of development and may be larger than the combined factors disaggregated.

The finality therefore is development can be explained by social factors. Human development has replaced the classical economists’ conceptualization of development much so that modern economists refer to this construct as including social, political and economic development. Bourne (2004) in a paper titled Development: beyond an economic perspective wrote that:
Karl Marx’s theorizing on economic development was interpreted within the construct of ‘economic interpretation of history’ and ‘the motivating forces of capitalistic development’. The latter perspective of Marx concurred with Adam Smith’s theorizing on development. Marx further his theorizing beyond that of Smith’s perspective when he that, “[Marx] ‘materialistic’ conceptual of historical evolution, according to which economic institutions, while they are products of social evolution, are themselves capable of influencing the course of social progress.” Although Marx partially supported Smith’s theorizing on economic development, he ventures into non-economic explanations of development. He, however, had a casual and distant relationship with the sociological factors.
John Maynard Keynes (born 1883 and died 1946) advocates some of a Classical school perspective on development. Kurihara (1959) said that, “Keyness suggested that the future rate of economic progress would depend on (a) ‘our power to control population’, (

‘our willingness to entrust to science the direction of those matters which are properly the concern of science,’(c) ‘our determination to avoid wars and civil dissensions’, (d) the rate of accumulation of fixed by the margin between production and our consumption.”(Kurihara, 1959, p.19). Of the factors that Keyness did theorize, only one is economic. Based on Kurihara’s writings, ‘our power to control population’ is governance and political, ‘our determination to avoid wars’ is social, cultural and political, and as such indicates that economic progress is highly improbable without human, social political and cultural change and development.

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