Theories of Development and their Applicability to Underdeveloped World: Different Propositions, Same Dilemma?

The pursuit for achievement of development aspirations of people world over has been at the core of both intellectuals, politicians and policymakers alike. The discipline of development studies has grown in its influence and attention from different disciplines after the second world war. This was upon realization that development, being multi-dimensional in nature, cannot be accomplished through the expertise of a singular discipline. That is why theories of development have been propounded by authors from different disciplines including, but not limited to, economics, sociology, philosophy, geography, history, anthropology, etc. The aim of this paper is to discuss a few selected theories of development and how they have helped to explain development trajectories, hitherto. The emphasis is on the application of the selected theories to the underdeveloped countries. At the end, the paper argues that although different theories have differences in conceptualizing development and explaining underdevelopment, there is only one single dilemma negatively impacting on the development of third world countries: lack of coherent development frameworks that emphasize on internal resource mobilization for their dependent-free development.