Dependency Theory: Requiescat in Pace?*

• Published in: Sociological Inquiry
• Main Author: Rhyne, Edwin Hoffman
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1990
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1990.tb00155.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1475-682X.1990.tb00155.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1990.tb00155.x

Many recent signs, empirical and analytic, raise questions about dependency/worldsystems theory. The difficulties are not new warnings but reminders that the theory has always had problems stemming from the close and logically unavoidable connections among three major beliefs or tenets: (1) the unchallenged omnipotence of the North Atlantic metropole throughout the world; (2) the neglect of indigenous variables as possible explanations of development; and (3) the implied assumption that growth and development are the normal state of affairs. It is argued that the first, and defining, tenet of dependency theory cannot be sustained unless the other two are also true and that this is the source of an increasingly ill‐fitting correspondence between the theory and major characteristics of the Third World.