Dependency Theory Represents a Paradigm Shift from Modernization Theory in so Far as It Provided the Scholarly Community with a Different Way of Understanding the Circumstances of the Non-Industrial Countries of the

Modernization theory is a theory used to explain the process of Modernization within societies. The theory looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that with assistance “traditional countries can be brought to development in the same manner more developed countries have. This theory of modernization however failed because it can be argued that it was too Eurocentric in its methodologies. That is to say its centered focus was on Europe or European peoples. The theory never considered the Caribbean region or other third world when explaining its concepts. This resulted in a paradigm shift from Modernization to Dependency. The Dependency theory was established to provide the scholarly community with a different way of understanding the circumstances of the non-industrial countries of the world. According to Osvaldo Sunkel, dependency theory can be sociologically defined as an explanation of the economic development of a state in terms of the external influences, political, economic and cultural on national development policies. Therefore this essay would take seek to explain the advantages and limitations of the central new insight that is provided about development by the Dependency theory.

One advantage of the Dependency theory is that the theory arose around 1960 as a reaction to some earlier theories of development which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today 's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today 's developed areas at some time in the past, and that therefore the task in helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and

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