DEPENDENCY THEORY & WORLD SYSTEMS

Question 1

What do they argue?

Answer 1

Associated with work of Andre Gunder Frank and Immanuel Wallerstein.

• argue that inequalities have been created by the exploitation of the poor world by the rich world and that poor countries will only be able to overcome these inequalities if they de link themselves from the capitalist world system.
• The inequalities experienced in the developing world have their historical origins from colonialism - which involved rich countries taking control and stealing the resources of the people in africa, asia and the americas.
• Although the former colonies have become politically independent, the same types of exploitation exist under neo-colonialism where poor countries are dictated to by the Bretton Woods Instituitons and are economically exploited by transnational corporations.
• Inequalities that exists are seen as a long term legacy of colonialism - e.g dependency theory would argue that ethnic inequalities are often a long term legacy of the ‘divide and rule’ policies associated with colonialism.
• Gender inequalities are seen to have been formed by the world capitalist system that relies on the super exploitation of women as either unpaid domestic labourers or poorly paid workers in export processing zones.

Question 2

Weaknesses of dependency theory?

Answer 2

• doesn’t take into account middle income countries - ‘metropolis’ and ‘satellite nations’ are simplistic e.g Canada is dependent on America; could be a ‘satellite’ but it is arguable. GOLDTHORPE argues most poor countries are ex-colonies BUT few counter-examples of nations with problems e.g Afghanistan and Ethopia have never been colonised.
• There are positive impacts of colonialism - BAEUR says that we British took over rubber seeds to Malaysia 100years ago into the amazon rainforest, and there is now a huge rubber industry which is mainly Asia-owned. We also brought tea over to India.
• Doesn’t offer practical solutions; nor does it offer explanations for the fact that some former colonies have experienced economic growth and power over the past 30 years - e.g nations such as South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia (asian tigers) and regions of South America.

Question 3

Strengths of dependency theory?

Answer 3

• This theory avoids blaming the underdeveloped countries for their poverty - by implicating external barriers to development - avoids blaming victims and instead blames the rich world.
• The perspective questions the root causes of inequality on a much deeper level - rather than assuming corruption causes poverty, it highlights the role of external factors e.g colonialism and neo-colonialism.
• It provides a model of development which sees nations as dynamic and interrelated - we can only understand development and under-development by considering the global context - examining both contemporary and historical interactions between nations.

Question 4

How does World Systems theory improve upon dependency theory?

Answer 4

• It takes into account middle income or ‘semi-periphery’ countries
• It is a more dynamic model of global inequality