ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors discuss “dependency” and “world system” theory from the point of view of two very intrigued but somewhat skeptical consumers. They examine the dependency and world-system approaches at two levels, the first theoretical or epistemological, the second more empirical. All social institutions—the family and the role of women, culture and the media, religion and the church—are linked to the political economy and the class structures underlying it. Most orthodox social scientists are also interested in change and even in the resistance to change by economically and politically privileged groups, including those created by earlier changes, that is, by contradictions in the system itself. One of the major problems with latter-day dependency theory and with world-system theory is that their advocates do not specify very clearly what they claim to explain. Problem with dependency and world-system theories is that they are based to a certain extent on a functionalist proposition.
