Rostow's Stages of Growth

In 1960 American economic historian Walt Whitman Rostow published 'The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto'. He argued that all societies pass through five stages: traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass consumption. The crucial step was 'take-off', a period of rapid industrialization driven by a jump in investment, which he dated to the late eighteenth century for Britain and later for other countries.

The model offered a hopeful message: poor countries could follow the path of rich ones, especially with Western aid and investment. Its subtitle shows its Cold War purpose, presenting capitalist development as an alternative to Soviet-style planning; Rostow later advised Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Critics argued that the model assumed every country would follow Europe's route, ignored the effects of colonialism and global inequality, and treated mass consumption as the goal of all societies.