Western-Centric Thinking

Written By Emika Otsuka

Term 

Western-Centric Thinking 

Idea level 

Pillar (of Industrial-Colonial Paradigm)  

Definition 

Western-Centric Thinking, as defined by Yuen Yuen Ang, is a mode of reasoning that treats Western capitalist democracy as the universal benchmark or endpoint of development. It casts non-Western societies as lagging cases that must catch up or assimilate, often through one-size-fits-all “good governance” reforms and global metrics that rank all societies against an idealized West. 

Paired with mechanical thinking, it forms what Ang calls the Industrial–Colonial Paradigm—a modern worldview that produces distorting and disempowering effects. 

Ang’s AIM corrects this blind spot by recognizing multiple pathways of development (Inclusive) and exposing how power shapes canonical knowledge (Moral). 

Sources 

Theoretical and empirical foundation:  

Public communication:  

  • Ang, Y.Y. (2024). “Doing Development in the Polycrisis.” Project Syndicate. 25 Nov 2024.  

  • Ang, Y.Y. (2026). “From Polycrisis to Polytunity.” Keynote Speech at DSA; published in Oxford Development Studies in 2026.  

Genealogy 

[Paradigm] Industrial–Colonial Paradigm 
→ [Pillar] Mechanical Thinking: societies treated as controllable machines 
→ [Pillar] Western-Centric Thinking: Western societies treated as universal benchmark or endpoint 
→ [Application: Development] one-size-fits-all “good governance” reforms and global metrics that rank societies by their distance from an idealized West 

Contrast with  

[Paradigm] AIM: Adaptive, Inclusive & Moral Political Economy 
→ [Pillar] Inclusive: multiple development pathways, not one Western endpoint 
→ [Pillar] Moral: power and positionality shape canons and metrics 
→ [Critique] Western-Centric Thinking 
→ [Application] “Use what you have” rather than catch-up-and-assimilate development 

Quotes 

“The good-governance agenda is premised on the belief that there is a universal set of good institutions, namely, institutions found in the capitalist West. This belief essentially suffocates adaptation at the point of origin: no variation is permitted. International benchmarks further entrench the belief that there is only one best option and that the quality of institutions in developing countries is measured only by its distance from one ideal type. Predictably, when aid recipients are pressured by conditional aid and international norms to adopt a set of golden standards, they have no choice but to pretend to do so, even if these standards do not fit their contexts.”  

— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), Chapter 2, pp. 53-54.  

“The colonial worldview accompanies the mechanical mindset. Although formal colonies no longer exist, global institutions emerged in an era when they did. The twentieth century was a period of Western domination, with American and European men exercising monopoly power in designing the rules of the global order and dictating intellectual canons. The animating assumption in development circles was that Western capitalist democracies exemplify the end point of human evolution, and the rest of the world only needs to ‘catch up’ and assimilate.” 

— Ang, Y.Y. (2024). “Doing Development in the Polycrisis.”  

“Without saying ‘emulate the West,’ mainstream political economy treats Western capitalist democracies as the endpoint of human evolution. Just look at the parade of ‘global metrics’ measuring governance, innovation, even ‘goodness’ itself. The same countries are always at the top; the same are stuck at the bottom. These numbers provide statistical backing for the claim that ‘good institutions’—as exemplified by a select group—are universal templates for development.” 

— Ang, Y.Y. (2025). “Polytunity: The Future of Development.”  

“Assimilation was orchestrated through one-size-fits-all ‘good governance’ reforms, promoted by international organizations like the World Bank. But just as homogenizing forests through industrial farming has destroyed biodiversity and resilience… [mimicry has diminished adaptability]. The parallel distortions seen in industrial agriculture and development economics are not coincidental; they are systemic—outcomes that flow from applying an industrial-colonial worldview.”  

— Ang, Y.Y. (2026). “From Polycrisis to Polytunity”   

Concept Constellation 

Across Ang’s work, Western-Centric Thinking consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes: 

Emika Otsuka
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