Underdevelopment of the Underdeveloped: Implications of Dependency Theory in Relationships among Nations in the Contemporary World.

The contemporary global capitalism's development system appears to be similar to the historical patterns and processes of global capitalism characterised by excessive exploitation of natural resources, depredation of peripheral economic development policies, and capital accumulation at the expense of peripheral security. Furthermore, through an increase in the interconnectedness of the world, global capitalist development has reinforced the exploitative dependence that leaves development a mountain too high to climb for peripheral nations. Thus, dependency theory is often skewed in analyses that juxtapose it with modernisation theory in explaining the Third World dilemmas. The aim of this paper was to review the literature to analyse the contesting and harmonious views on dependency theory to determine its relevance in the modern world. Using extant literature, this paper argued that dependency theory is relevant in explaining today's world. This is because it extensively describes how the current international trade system supports the territorial invasion of Third World countries by the core to repatriate resources to their motherland, impeding Africa's socio-economic progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]