The paper analyzes various theories of growth and
modernization and finds that they share a prognosis that lack of capital
is a critical element. The paper gives several reasons for this lack. The paper reviews the history of different growth and
modernization models, focusing on Asian economies. It compares the structuralist and
substantivist schools' approaches to development and examines the dependency theory in the context of the Philippine economy. The paper concludes with the contemporary evaluation of economic development, the Human Development Index, first released by the United Nations Development Program in 1990, noting that the HDI much better measures the problems of poverty and ignorance. Table of Contents: Theories of Growth and Modernization Structuralist Theories Critique of the Growth and Modernization Models A Shift to Basic Needs Approach Bibliography