1. Critically examine
dependency theory as a paradigm of understanding underdevelopment in
post-colonial societies.
Introduction
Dependency theory, an approach to understanding economic
underdevelopment that emphasizes the putative constraints imposed by the
worldwide political and economic order. First proposed within the late 1950s by
Argentina economist and statesman Raúl Prebisch, dependency theory gained
prominence within the 1960s and ’70s.
Dependency Theory
Dependency theory, underdevelopment is especially caused by
the peripheral position of affected countries within the world economy.
Typically, underdeveloped countries offer cheap labour and raw materials on the
planet market. These resources are sold to advanced economies, which have the
means to rework them into finished goods. Underdeveloped countries find
yourself purchasing the finished products at high prices, depleting the capital
they could otherwise devote to upgrading their own productive capacity.
The result's a vicious circle that perpetuates the division
of the planet economy between an upscale core and a poor periphery. While
moderate dependency theorists, like the Brazilian sociologist Fernando Henrique
Cardoso (who served because the president of Brazil in 1995–2003), considered some
level of development to be possible within this technique , more-radical
scholars, like the German American economic historian Andre Gunder Frank,
argued that the sole answer of dependency was the creation of a noncapitalist
(socialist) economy .
Dependency theory is that the notion that resources be due a
"periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core"
of made states, enriching the latter at the expense of the previous . it's a
central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and
rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world
system". This theory was officially developed within the late 1960s
following war II, as scholars looked for the basis issue within the lack of
development in Latin America .
The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an
earlier theory of development which held that each one societies progress
through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are
thus during a similar situation thereto of today's developed areas at a while
within the past, and that, therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped
areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of
development, by various means like investment, technology transfers, and closer
integration into the planet market. Dependency theory rejected this view,
arguing that underdeveloped countries aren't merely primitive versions of
developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and,
importantly, are within the situation of being the weaker members during a
world free enterprise .
Dependency theory not has many proponents as an overall
theory, though some writers have argued for its continuing relevance as a
conceptual orientation to the worldwide division of wealth. Dependency
theorists typically divides into two different categories surrounding the
theory: liberal reformists and neo-Marxists. people who align with liberal
reformists typically believe that targeted policy intervention is that the best
approach to improving lives. Comparatively, neo-Marxists believe a command
centered economy is that the simpler approach to improving lives.
Examples of Dependency Theory
Many nations are suffering from both the positive and
negative effects of the Dependency Theory. the thought of national dependency
on another nation isn't a comparatively new concept albeit the dependency
theory itself is quite new. Dependency is perpetuated by using capitalism and
finance. The dependent nations come to owe the developed nations such a lot
money and capital that it's impossible to flee the debt, continuing the
dependency for the foreseeable future.
An example of the dependency theory is that in the years of
1650 to 1900 Britain and other European nations took over or colonialized other
nations. They used their superior military technology and naval strength at the
time to try to to this. This began an financial system in America, Africa, and
Asia to then export the natural materials from their land to Europe. After shipping
the materials to Europe, Britain and therefore the other European countries
made products with these materials then sent them back to colonized parts of
America, Africa, and Asia. This resulted within the transfer of wealth from
these regions’ products to Europe for taking control of the products.
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