Bradshaw And Wallace The Modernization Theory Believes example essay topic

I found the book Global Inequalities quite interesting as well as being very informative. I enjoyed reading this book because unlike many other texts it was not very "cut and dry", rather it was easy to read and Bradshaw and Wallace did a good job illustrating major points. This made the book easy to read because it did not require me to re-read many passages to understand the ideas presented. Prior to reading this book, I did not have too much knowledge about world events that have occurred in the past. I learned a great deal about international events, it also clarified many ideas that I had previously learned but was not too sure about the details.

I found it extremely interesting learning about all of the different cultures and lifestyles that many countries enjoy around the world. I only have one complaint about the book; it is that the book is not very up-to-date. Many of the ideas pointed illustrated by Bradshaw and Wallace is out dated. In fact a couple of the ideas that are talked about have changed over time or even been solved since the book went to print, however even though some of the ideas are out dated many are still very interesting to read about.

In general I thought that Bradshaw and Wallace did an excellent job composing a book that clearly illustrates many of the cultures including ours and the problems facing them over time. Throughout the book Bradshaw and Wallace have presented many ideas that illustrate several inequalities throughout the world. There were three major points that I felt were the most important to my overall understanding of how cultures greatly differ from each other and the global inequalities around the world. In my opinion these ideas were important because they explain many of the problems that both developing and developed countries face on a daily basis. They were colonization, the Modernization Theory and World Systems Theory and the section about Baseball in Asia. Although Bradshaw and Wallace have presented many ideas and issues, I felt that these easily explained some main reasons as to why global inequalities transpire.

The first point that I felt was significant was the theory of colonization. Colonization was how many underdeveloped countries were formed; this also led to many problems in those respective countries. Colonization caused many problems, such as problems in the economy, governmental corruption, and cultural change. When the colonial powers initiated different types of governments to new countries during the colonization period these countries were not accustomed to.

Later, when the powers left, they gave the leaders the ability to take over the already fragile government. Often as a result, incompetent leaders who ran these countries further into debt led these countries. A major problem was that the Colonial Powers were still sending aid to these corrupt leaders, which allowed them to stay in power and as a result, worsen the problem. Another problem that Colonization caused was severe cultural change; many new religions and lifestyles were introduced to these new countries. The citizens were obviously not familiar with these ideals that were being introduced to them, this caused for a lot of confusion. As well as confusion, these ideas also led to violence between various religious groups throughout the countries.

Unfortunately this is still a problem that many developing countries still have to deal with today, where certain groups are fighting wars with each other in order to overcome the other and become the predominant power. Colonization has also caused Economic problems and they are a significant reason as to why these countries are underdeveloped. As a result of the corruption of the government, money is not being allocated sufficiently to encourage economic growth, which in turn hinders the development of the country. All of these problems have been a result of Colonization and led to many countries being under-developed and hindering them from advancing. Another point that I learned from Bradshaw and Wallace is global solutions that the World Systems Theory and Modernization Theory try to help out developing countries.

The World System Theory believes that the richer, more developed countries should help out the poorer, more challenged countries both economically and technologically to build a stronger society and hopefully be able to compare them to other developed countries. Globally, this theory says that developed countries need to give more foreign aid to developing countries, help out technologically and forgive foreign debt. This helps developing countries the ability to build without falling behind the more developed neighboring countries both economically as well as technologically. According to Bradshaw and Wallace the Modernization Theory believes that developing countries will build to developed countries when "they adopt free markets, democratic systems, and western values".

This Theory says that once a developing nation adopts these ideas they will be able to build their societies to a developed level. These two theories show how they have tried to mold developing nations into successful countries in two completely different methods. I feel that, this could be a slight problem because they target opposite ideas to help these nations. I feel that in order for these theories to work correctly they should work together as one to help developing nations. Bradshaw and Wallace's section about baseball in Asia titled "Bats, Balls and Whips". They show how the game of baseball in the U.S. and in Japan is completely different.

For instance in Japan almost all Japanese players get paid roughly the same amount, as opposed to in the U.S. there are many players who will hold out for a season in order for them to receive a multi-million dollar contract. The Japanese feel that this is placing individual interests above the teams. Another common practice for American professional baseball players is to throw temper tantrums or fight; this is unheard of in Japan. For example one player from a Japanese team blatantly disregarded his coaches directions, and as a punishment his coach punched him between his eyes. In the U.S. in this day in age, when players have fought their coaches over petty things, this would not be acceptable. Over in the States, American's have definitely seen plenty of fights, arguments, and off-field problems.

In Japan this stuff would most likely never occur. Another major difference between Japanese baseball and American baseball is the fact that in Japan there is such a thing as a tie, however not in the U.S. In the United States a baseball game would not end until there was no longer a tie, no matter how long it took. In Japan the game will go no longer than four hours or twelve innings. These are some very big differences between our "American Pastime" and Japanese baseball. These are all ideas the Bradshaw and Wallace clearly illustrate as being "Global Inequalities". Throughout this book, Bradshaw and Wallace really helped me grasp more of an understanding about how much the world differs going from one culture to another.

Being an athlete myself, the section about how much baseball differs from the U.S. to Japan really pointed out how the differences are extensive. The first two issues have led to many countries becoming underdeveloped. All of these issues are very important and are a learning process for all societies that wish to become a success in the near future.