ABSTRACT

The dependency theory of underdevelopment presented a radical challenge to modernization theory. Dependency theory gained wide acceptance in the 1960s and 1970s, but many still felt that the new theory was too extreme. Perhaps not all of an underdeveloped society’s failures could be blamed on domination and exploitation by the advanced industrial countries. Moreover, dependency theory seemed too rigid in its apparent conclusion that a state of dependency made significant development impossible. Such Latin American countries as Brazil and Mexico—and to an even greater degree such East Asian countries as Taiwan and South Korea—underwent a substantial amount of development from the 1950s through the 1980s while still retaining many features of dependency. In time, it came to be argued that dependency theory needed to be softened or even reformulated. This article by Immanuel Wallerstein provides such a reformulation through use of the world-system perspective.