Paper Summary:

This paper compares and contrasts the modernization and dependency perspectives commonly raised when explaining third-world under-development. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical paradigm and aims to determine which of the two is more effective at illustrating why so much of the world continues to lag behind North America and Europe.

From the Paper:

"As one might expect, this theory is highly controversial - with apparent weaknesses and strengths. After all, it has now been decades since the fall of "old-fashioned" colonialism and one would think that Global South nations would have finally developed institutional and economic innovations capable of sustaining them and capable also of pushing them forward. Moreover, the supposed technological transfer from developed to developing nations would surely seem like a phenomenon capable of rescuing developing countries from their relative poverty. Seen in that light, the dependency theory may seem like so much "excuse-making" for incompetent and/or corrupt national regimes."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Galeano, Eduardo. "King Sugar and other Agricultural Monarchs." The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Transl. Cedric Belfrage. USA: Monthly Review Press, 1973. pp.71-104.
• Galeano, Eduardo. "Lust for Gold, Lust for Silver." The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Transl. Cedric Belfrage. USA: Monthly Review Press, 1973. pp.29-49.
• Isbister, John. "Explanations of Under-development." Promises not Kept: the Betrayal of Social Change in the Third World (edition number not provided by client). USA: Kumarian Press (?), 1998?
• "Modernization Theory." Remaining bibliographic information not provided by client.
• Webster, Andrew. "Modernization Theory." Introduction to the Sociology of Development, 2nd Edition. Ed. Andrew Webster. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1990. pp.49-53.

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