Rostow's stages of economic growth model is one of the major historical models of economic growth. It was published by American economist Walt Whitman Rostow in 1960. The model postulates that economic growth occurs in five basic stages, of varying length: The traditional society The preconditions for take-off The take-off The drive to maturity The age of high mass-consumption Rostow's model is one of the more structuralist models of economic growth, particularly in comparison with the "backwardness" model developed by Alexander Gerschenkron, although the two models are not mutually exclusive. Rostow argued that economic take-off must initially be led by a few individual economic sectors. This belief echoes David Ricardo's comparative advantage thesis and criticizes Marxist revolutionaries' push for economic self-reliance in that it pushes for the "initial" development of only one or two sectors over the development of all sectors equally. This became one of the important concepts in the theory of modernization in social evolutionism. Overview In addition to the five stages he had proposed in The Stages of Economic Growth in 1960, Rostow discussed the sixth stage beyond high mass-consumption and called it "the search for quality" in 1971. Below is an outline of Rostow's six stages of growth: 1 Traditional society Barter trading was still practiced to exchange good,here people use primitive and rudiment technology and are heavily reliant on subsistence farming. 2 Pre-conditions for take off Here urbanization starts, people revolve from subsistence farming to commercial farming and there is improvement in transport networks like roads and railways. 3 The take-off Urbanization increases, industrialization proceeds, technological breakthroughs occur. "Secondary" (goods-producing) sector expands and ratio of secondary vs. primary sectors in the economy shifts quickly towards secondary. Textiles and apparel are usually the first "take-off" industry, as happened in Great Britain's classic "Industrial Revolution" An Example of the Take-off phase is the Agriculture (Green) Revolution in the 1960s. 4 The drive to maturity Diversification of the industrial base; multiple industries expand and new ones take root quickly Manufacturing shifts from investment-driven (capital goods) towards consumer durables and domestic consumption Rapid development of transportation infrastructure Large-scale investment in social infrastructure (schools, universities, hospitals, etc.) 5 The age of mass-consumption the industrial base dominates the economy; the primary sector is of greatly diminished weight in the economy and society widespread and normative consumption of high-value consumer goods (e.g. automobiles) consumers typically (if not universally), have disposable income, beyond