Radical Development: Dependency Theories in the 1960s and 1970s

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Radical Development Dependency Theories in the
1960s and 1970s

• Lecture for Tuesday 3rd October
• Geog270

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Aims of the Lecture

• introduce key critiques of modernisation theory
• introduce dependency theories
• reflect critically on the work of dependency
  theorists
• note the continued relevance of dependency ideas

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Structure of Lecture

• 1. Summary of modernisation theory and critique
• 2. Rise of dependency theory
• 3. Nature of dependency theory
• 4. Critically evaluating dependency arguments

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Relationship of lecture to course textbook

• Course textbook introduces a broader range of
  Marxian theories
• We concentrate on dependency theories (most
  influential in the West)
• But please read background to Marxs ideas
• 4. Also see non-western Marxian theories of
  development discussed in Willis (e.g. Soviet and
  Maoist theories) remember GRIP

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Development as modernization Summary

• 1. Development economic growth
• 2. Industrialisation through investment of
  capital
• 3. Ignored history
• 4. Believed in being objective
• 5. Written mainly by men in the West

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1960s - new uncertainty about modernization

• War in Vietnam met with moral outrage in the US.
• New Left critics in UK such as EP Thompson argued
  that gap between rich and poor had widened by a
  factor of three between 1945 and 1965

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Origins of Dependency Theory I

• Marxist scholars Prebisch and Furtado argued that
  Latin American countries were poor because of
  their relationship to richer countries in 1960s
  and 1970s
• Caribbean school of scholars sought to identify
  indigenous paths for the regions development

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Origins of Dependency Theory II

• Model of development proposed by Rostow and Lewis
  challenged from within economics by Paul Baran in
  his book The Political Economy of Growth (1957)
• Baran economic devt of poor countries is against
  interests of rich countries
• Rich countries have exploited poor

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Gunder Frank I

• Economist
• Argued that rich colonial (metropolitan) powers
  acquired wealth through exploiting weaker
  satellite countries
• Franks model drew heavily on a reading of world
  history

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Gunder Frank II

• The satellite countries supply cheap primary
  commodities to rich countries
• The rich countries use raw materials to produce
  relatively expensive manufactured goods, which
  are sold back to the peripheral countries
• Frank this is a form of theft

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Continued dependency

• Frank argued that this theft is continuing
  through the policies of World Bank and IMF and
  through the activities of multinational
  corporations
• MNCs accused of introducing inappropriate new
  consumption patterns out-competing local firms

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Implications of Franks arguments

• Poverty not a result of misfortune
• Frank (1969) poorer countries experience their
  greatest economic developmentif and when their
  ties to the metropolis are weakest.
• Poorer countries face a choice between poverty or
  socialist revolution

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Dependency theorists key points

• 1. Underdevelopment is a historical process , not
  a condition necessarily intrinsic to poorer
  countries
• 2. The dominant and dependent countries together
  form a capitalist system.
• 3. Underdevelopment is an inherent consequence of
  the functioning of the world system.

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Critique of dependency theory

• Narrow focus on exchange relations as basis for
  domination
• Doesnt look at local processes of exploitation
  and exclusion
• Franks model undermined by changing economic
  condition of some formerly poor countries e.g.
  Asian Tigers

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Wallerstein

• Wallerstein believed that the periphery was being
  exploited by richer countries (core countries)
• Between core and periphery there are
  semi-peripheral countries that import raw
  materials from the periphery and hi-tech goods
  from the core and export semi-manufactured goods
  to the core and industrial products to the
  periphery.

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Inadequacy of dependency theories

• Overlook social and cultural variation within
  core and periphery
• Focus too much on the economy
• Socialist revolution not a workable aim ?
• Not possible to de-link countries from world
  capitalist system

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Conclusion key points

• variety of ways in which development is defined
  and studied
• not one theory replacing another but overlapping
  accounts of how development should be promoted
• dependency theory provides a provocative set of
  ideas that we need to think about critically

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Conclusions Getting a GRIP on Dependency
Theories

• GEOGRAPHY How is dependency reflected in the
  landscape of poorer countries?
• REGION How does your region reflect a history
  of dependency/exploitation?
• INTERACT What do others in the class think of
  the whole dependency idea?
• POSITION Where have you encountered notions like
  dependency before and what do you think of these
  ideas?