Structuralist, dependency and world systems theories

Michael Dunford

Chapter 6 in Rethinking Uneven Development, 2026, pp 143-169 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter reconsiders the structuralist development theories of Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Ragnar Nurkse, W. Arthur Lewis, Raúl Prebisch and Hans Singer and outlines the overall evolution of the terms of trade. These theories are of renewed significance after the abysmal failure of neoliberalism to spread development in the Global South and East (GSE). Claims in theories of the ‘Dutch disease’ and resource curse of adverse developmental outcomes of mineral and fuel abundance are also discussed. Attention then turns to a group of more critical dependency theories. Dependency theorists argue correctly that the development of the GSE, and particularly Latin American and African countries, was strongly conditioned by adverse relationships with already developed world power centres and the international system. The contributions of José Carlos Mariátegui, Celso Furtado, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Aníbal Quijano, Milton Santos, Ruy Mauro Marini, André Gunder Frank and Samir Amin are outlined, as is the recent renewal of interest in dependency. The chapter also outlines the world systems theories, originally of Fernand Braudel and then of Immanuel Wallerstein and Giovanni Arrighi, which consider world development as the most important theoretical object and highlight the development of core–periphery systems in which hegemonies succeed one another in ascending and descending phases of short-, medium- and long-term cycles.

Keywords: Developmentalism; Structuralist Development Theories; North–South Divide; Dependency Theory; World Systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035352968
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