ABSTRACT
The structural relationships resulting from the technological unity of industrial civilization, which constitutes the basic web of dependency, should be seen against the background of developments in the countries that exercise the power of initiative in technical creativity. In most peripheral countries external relations of dependence are embodied in the structures of social domination. The struggle against dependence generally begins when a dependent country demands control over its sources of non-renewable resources. The struggle against dependence has been taking the form of confrontation, although the aims of the peripheral countries at each stage are apparently modest. Economic dependence, cultural tutelage and political authoritarianism complement and reinforce one another. Notwithstanding the diversity of world-views produced by utopian thought in the nineteenth century--under the impetus of the profound disruption of social structures that took place during the first phase of industrial civilization--has tended to be par excellence the age of uniformity in relation to human needs.
