Dependency Theory
Dependency Theory
Dependency Theory
Towards a Critique of
Developmentalist: Dependency
Theory
1960s-- United Nations Economic
Commission for Latin America.
Main Authors: Fernando H. Cardoso, Faletto,
Theotonio Dos Santos.
Main Thesis: Underdevelopment is not the
product of the persistence of “traditional”
society; instead, it is generated by the
particular fashion the expansion of capitalism
assumes in the “periphery.”
Developmentalist approaches
are wrong. The expansion of
the market does not
necessarily produce either
modernization or development.
On the contrary, capitalism
makes societies look like
“feudal” in the periphery.
Development and
underdevelopment
constitute the two sides of
the same coin: capitalism.
The periphery is
underdeveloped because of
the development of the
center.
Flows of Wealth
(Developed)
Center
(Underdeveloped)
Periphery
Unequal and Combined Development:
The play between Center and
Periphery reproduces in all scales
(fractal structure)
Center Periphery
Center-Periphery Center-Periphery
Center-Periphery-Center-Periphery Center-Periphery Center-Periphery
Sovereign States
Elites
CENTER PERIPHERY
Modernization, Industrialization,
Urbanization, to Development do
not lead in the periphery. Instead,
they foster Underdevelopment, a
“caricature” of the central
societies.
For theorists of
dependency, such
as Cardoso and
Faletto...
In the periphery, the
development of capitalism leads
to...
• Dependent and unequal development
(distorted, uneven, and pathological
form of modernization).
• Increasing dependency.
Politically...
• (economic and social • (economic and social
integration fosters) exclusion fosters)
Democracies, extended Dictatorships (or Formal
citizenship, and the Democracies), State
rule of law, which violence, limited
PREVAIL in the Center citizenship, and the
Free market + Democracy (un)rule of law, which
PREVAIL in the
Periphery.
Alliance:
the State + Corporations
Free market + Repression
Cardoso & Faletto:
• “The same fundamental alliance which
constitutes a dependent industrial
capitalist state may organize itself
institutionally within a context of
authoritarianism, restricted democracy,
or totalitarianism.”
SOLUTION:
BREAK UP THE
BONDS OF
DEPENDENCY
Since
Dependency = Capitalism,
• “World-systems”
– “World-Empire”
– -“World-Economy”
“Reciprocal-lineage.”
• Limited and elementary specialization
of tasks and forms of exchange. Based
on human labor. Limited growth. Mini-
systems, short-lived (6 generations).
“World-systems”1:
“World-Empire.”