Bark and O'Hare model

The Bark and O'Hare model is an economic development model. It was released in 1984. It is considered a parallel model to the Rostov model , which is considered Eurocentric , while the Barke and O'Hare model focuses on the West African economic area.

The model was developed because it became more and more clear that the West African states would not follow the European, i.e. the Rostov model, in their economic development.

The developers Barke and O'Hare assumed that not only capital, but rather a social restructuring is necessary in order to lead a state from a subsistence economy to a modern economy. Social restructuring means that the common people have the opportunity to save and invest money. An entrepreneurial class should also be able to establish itself. Barke and O'Hare justify their move with another reason for the independence of a growing economy, namely that the states in Rostov's model had an abundance of raw materials at their disposal, which is not the case in today's developing countries.

The developers of the theory divided the economic development process into four stages:

1. traditional handicraft industry ( traditional craft industries ): This form of industry existed before the time of colonialism in West Africa. For example, leather or iron products were made.
2. Colonialism and the processing of primary products : Raw materials were exported in unprocessed form, while the main import was in the form of end products, which largely destroyed the domestic economy. Later, special industries and cities developed around the ports, which were mostly built by the colonial rulers. These special industries were, for example, those that produced goods that were ephemeral, difficult to transport or already available abroad but were in great demand at home. The only purpose of building railways in West Africa was to transport goods from the interior to the ports. Education of the locals was not actively promoted by the colonial rulers, so that they had no experience in building or manufacturing industrial goods and were therefore unable to develop independent industries.
3. Import substitution : After independence, the West African states had to replace the missing import. Because there was a lack of existing capital and technology to replace it, only small basic needs industries emerged trying to manufacture hardware, textiles or furniture with their simple machines.
4. Capital generation and durable consumer goods production ( manufacture of capital and durable consumer goods ): After the prosperity began in some countries in West Africa to grow, the demand for Western products. Since neither the knowledge nor the machines were available in the country, multinational companies came to these countries and offered work materials and knowledge, hoped for and received cheap workers, tax breaks and entry into the new markets in West Africa in return . Large-scale projects by companies in countries are often less useful to the countries and are much more objects of prestige for companies or corrupt governments. In some cases, companies such as Volkswagen withdrew their operations in the countries as global sales fell as a result of criticism of the actions of the companies in the countries.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Rostow and Barke and O'Hare Models, and how it applies to North Korea (accessed April 2, 2011)