Dependency theory

Dependency theory is the idea that resources flow from a "<a href="/facts/Periphery_countries/CXw3sghf">periphery</a>" of poor and exploited states to a "<a href="/facts/Core_countries/QDedVTpf">core</a>" of <a href="/facts/Developed_country/sqwTSDHm">wealthy states</a>, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. A central contention of dependency theory is that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "<a href="/facts/World_system/rX3Kohkt">world system</a>". This theory was officially developed in the late 1960s following World War II, as scholars searched for the root issue in the lack of development in <a href="/facts/Latin_America/Qmx9Jx2a">Latin America</a>.
The theory arose as a reaction to <a href="/facts/Modernization_theory/7l6JlX61">modernization theory</a>, an earlier <a href="/facts/Development_theory/NpKWG69U">theory of development</a> which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in the past, and that, therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped areas out of <a href="/facts/Poverty/hNLtrNmK">poverty</a> is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as <a href="/facts/Investment/VrMookcv">investment</a>, <a href="/facts/Technology_transfer/PVLwHDq1">technology transfers</a>, and closer integration into the <a href="/facts/World_economy/Gng36UFL">world market</a>. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and <a href="/facts/Structuralism/qWLvWtfb">structures</a> of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world <a href="/facts/Market_economy/d56S7haK">market economy</a>.
Some writers have argued for its continuing relevance as a conceptual orientation to the global division of wealth. Dependency theorists can typically be divided into two categories: <a href="/facts/Liberal_reformist/yjFMfraA">liberal reformists</a> and <a href="/facts/Neo-Marxist/g1H59gDj">neo-Marxists</a>. Liberal reformists typically advocate for targeted policy interventions, while the neo-Marxists propose a <a href="/facts/Planned_economy/TCMJrC5M">planned economy</a>.

Dependency theory open-in-new

Dependency theory