Write short note on Development and Dependency from a sociological perspective. (In about 150 words) (2011)
Sociologically, development is not merely economic growth but a structural transformation of social relations, and dependency is the condition in which that transformation is shaped by an external centre.
Two competing accounts
- Modernisation theory (W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth, 1960) treats underdevelopment as an original condition caused by internal obstacles — traditional values, low savings, ascriptive roles — remedied by contact with the West. It is ahistorical and ethnocentric, ignoring colonialism.
- Dependency theory (Raúl Prebisch, Andre Gunder Frank, Immanuel Wallerstein) inverts this: underdevelopment is produced by surplus extraction through the metropolis–satellite chain and the core–periphery division of labour.
Where the debate now stands
Fernando Henrique Cardoso showed dependency and development can coexist, their shape decided by internal class alliances. India’s National Critical Mineral Mission (2025), launched because processing capacity lies abroad, illustrates dependency persisting within rapid growth.
Conclusion
Amartya Sen’s capability approach resolves the tension by redefining development as the expansion of freedoms, not of dependence-free output.