Delineate the salient features of dependency theory of underdevelopment.

 Dependency Theory seeks to analyze international politics by concerning itself with the existing unequal relationship among nation-states i.e. between Developed Countries (Centre) and Underdeveloped Countries (Periphery.)

The origin of Dependency Theory came as an alternative to the theories of modernisation and development as formulated and supported by the Western and Marxist scholars. Naturally, it involves a strong criticism of both Structural and Marxist approaches.

The Dependency theory begins with a study of the colonial impact on the indigenous socio-economic and political structures, then seeks to analyze the characteristics of the new socio- economic structure, and finally seeks to trace its evolution in relations to both the internal changes and developments in the World capitalist system.

Underdevelopment as Dependency:

The Dependency Theory analyses the internal dynamics of underdeveloped countries and relates their underdevelopment to their positions in the international economic system. It also examines the relation between the internal and external structures.

The underdevelopment of the Third World countries is explained by it in terms of the socio- economic-politico-cultural processes which link these countries to the developed countries. The underdeveloped countries are regarded as the peripheries and the developed countries as the centers, and it is held that the nature of social phenomena in the periphery can be understood and analyzed only with reference to the world capitalist system, which stands dominated by the developed centers.

The central point in the Dependency Theory is that the nature of social phenomena in the Third World countries is determined by the process of underdevelopment which characterizes these countries and which is the result of the expansion of World Capitalism. Further, this process of underdevelopment is intimately and inseparably related to their external dependence. In fact, almost all the dependency theorists generally agree that underdevelopment is caused by external dependence particularly on capitalist countries.

Dependency as the Product of Expansion of World Capitalism:

The Dependency Theory presents a macro-historical and structural perspective. It involves a rejection of the Continuum and Marxist explanations of development and underdevelopment. Underdevelopment is explained by it as a product of capitalist expansion which is accompanied by unequal exchanges and in which the Centre/Core/Metropolis exploits the resources and labour of the periphery for its advantage. The periphery lives in a state of dependency and is characterised by underdevelopment.

“Dependency is a situation in which the economy of certain countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is subjected. The relation of interdependence between two or more economies, and between these and world trade, assumes the form of dependence when some countries (the dominant ones) can expand and can be self-starting while other countries (the dependent ones) can do this only as reflection of that expansion which can have either a positive or a negative effect on their immediate development.” —Dos Santos

Thus, dependence is the relationship between the dependents and the developed countries. It is a situation which conditions the ability of the underdeveloped to develop. It is limited by the expansion of capitalism. Its traditional form was imperialism or colonialism while its contemporary form happens to be Neo-colonialism, i.e., a state of dependency of the underdeveloped periphery (the new states) upon the developed (the former imperialist- colonialists).

Most of the dependency theorists use centre-periphery paradigm for analyzing the nature and scope of international relations as well as the nature of underdevelopment which characterizes the political systems of the underdeveloped.

The main advocates of Dependency Theory are Andre Gunder Frank, Wallerstein, Dos Santos, Osvaldo Sunkel, Celso Furtado, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Euzo Falleto and Frantz Fanon. All of them agree that underdevelopment of the Third World countries, (the wretched of the Earth, as Frantz Fanon describes them) is directly related to their neo-colonial existence, i.e., external dependence upon the developed countries.

In the development of the Dependency Theory a pioneering contribution was made by Andre Gunder Frank and Wallerstein. Both of them strongly advocated that the underdevelopment of the Third World (Periphery) was conditioned by the development and expansion of a developed economy upon which the former was dependent.

hey hold that the development of the periphery was not possible at all witan the world capitalist system, which continued to be pro-centre (pro-developed states) to the complete disadvantage of the periphery. The underdeveloped countries have been living as satellites of the metropolis developed countries. The import-substitution industrialisation thesis, as advocated by the development theorists, has failed to click with the Third World countries.

Their economies have, on the contrary, become stagnant and increasingly dependent upon the economies of the developed. The only way open for the underdeveloped countries, believe the dependency theorists, to become developed was to overthrow the existing system.

While some of the dependency theorists favoured a socialist revolution for achieving this goal, the other favoured liberal reforms involving the maintenance of a balance in trade, increasing the capacity to bargain through regional cooperation and assimilation of new techniques through macro-economic adjustments.

Critical Appraisal of Dependency Theory:

The Dependency Theory offers a very interesting and penetrating analysis of politics in the underdeveloped countries and also of the nature and scope of relations between them and the developed countries. Most of the dependency theorists use the centre-periphery paradigm for this purpose.

They describe the condition of the underdeveloped as a situation of dependency which has resulted from the expansion of world capitalism. Most of them believe that within the context of a capitalist world system, there could be no alternative to underdevelopment. Many of them, therefore, favour socialism, either through a socialist revolution, or through other liberal reformist measures/movements, as the remedy against dependency and underdevelopment.

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