Question

What are some of the main elements of dependency theory? What was the dependency theory of economic development a response to? What are some examples of countries that adopted the approach recommended by dependency theory?

Answer 1

                                    Dependency theory states that resources always flows from poor and underdeveloped states to wealthy states. Officially developed by late 1960’s, the dependency theory is based on a central notion that the poor states are integrated in to the world system following this criteria. It thus states that today’s so called developed areas were once belonging to the underdeveloped nations and hence this particular criteria would eb applicable to each nation at a certain stage of their development and hence cannot be denied by any nation.

                                    The following are the major elements of the dependency theory

· The underdeveloped countries have unique structures and features of their own with the exception that they belong to the weaker section of the world economy

· All the countries would have to go through a similar stage at some point of their time and hence this particular mechanism is not avoidable by any nation

                                                The dependency theory developed as a response to the constraints imposed by global political and economic order in the late 1960’s especially in the post World War scenario. The theory developed further as a response to the modernization theory as a result of widespread poverty that was evident across the world. It also aimed at explaining the concept of overurbanization which stated that urbanization rates outpaced the industrial growth in many of the developing nations at those times. It was also able to explain the third world crisis of 1980’s and the continued stagnation in Africa and Latin America in the 1990’s

                                    There are many notable examples of dependency theory that can be seen from across the world. The colonization of Britain and other European nations in the period ranging from 1650’s to 1900’s is a notable example of this theory. The economic system that developed as a result of this impact of colonization clearly depicts that such a dependency do exist across the globe and each and every nation has to go through such a stage once or the other.