Step 1: Understanding Rostow’s stages of economic growth.
Rostow’s stages of economic growth are a linear model of development, consisting of five stages: traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and age of high mass consumption. The “take-off” stage is crucial as it marks the point where old economic structures are broken down, and growth becomes self-sustained.
Step 2: Analyzing the options.
- (A) Correct, according to Rostow, all nations pass through five stages, and the “take-off” stage represents the moment when the old blocks to growth are overcome.
- (B) Incorrect, the drive to maturity is not the stage where old blocks to growth are overcome, it is the stage after take-off.
- (C) Incorrect, there are five stages, not four, and the preconditions for take-off is not the stage where growth becomes self-sustained.
- (D) Incorrect, the “age of high consumption” is the final stage, after the take-off stage.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct answer is (A) five, the take-off.