Book Review; Economic Theories of Development: an analysis of competing paradigms

The text explains six main intellectual frameworks in the development Economics based on Cohen's paradigm. Since the publication of Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962, researchers in the natural sciences and then social sciences, particularly economic researchers tried to apply paradigmatic analysis in a variety of disiplines including development. Hunt’s book is a good example of such works.
Modernization, structuralism, Neo-Marxism, Maoism, basic needs and Neoclassical Economics as competing paradigms have been discussed in this work. The author explains dependency theory, but does not recognize it as a paradigm. In this paper, the author’s definition of Paradigm, has been criticized. Another critique to the text is Incommensurability of paradigms that constitute the book's approach.
Economic Methodologists, which are viewed economics from the perspective of Cohen’s scientific revolution, they recognized Keynesian economics as true paradigm shift in economics and development economists recognized the shift from modernization to dependency theory as a true paradigm shift in development. Finally, institutionalist approach to economic development, neglected and has not been discussed in the text.