Dependent Development and Economic Inequality

Summary

Social scientists have long sought to explain global development inequalities. This entry provides an accessible introduction to these debates for an undergraduate and graduate-level audience, focusing on the insights of modernization theory, world-systems analysis (WSA), and dependency theory. I provide an overview of the empirical problem motivating decades of social scientific attention in the comparative international social sciences: global inequalities in development. Then, I describe the central tenets of modernization theory and world-systems analysis/dependency theory, followed by an overview of empirical research on the issue. I conclude with some suggestions for future research.