Pioneered by Gardner, strange, spiro, brown, Kindleberger, Gunder frank and Claude Ake, the
approach emphasized the interaction of economic and political forces. Political economy studies
economic relations which arise between man in the process of production, the
nature of political powers, the class content of the state, the influence of
state policy on the economy, and the mutual influence of various socio-economic systems existing in the
modern world. The rapidity
with which this approach has gained acceptance in political science and
international relations in particular was
partly its antithesis posture to the modernization thesis. While modernization posits that interaction
between the centre nations and the
periphery will improve the periphery’s position globally the peripheries have come
to witness under development. In deed,
these scholars have taken seriously a
political dimension to study of external
economic relations of nations. In Maxist standing point, the interaction
between economics and politics does not sink down to the establishment of the
definitive function of the former with respect to the latter.
Also, it involves
recognition of the active feedback effect of politics on economic
development the approach seek to overcome the problems associated with the
extreme politics without economics approach of the realist
school and at the same time rescue the field of international economic relations from
the excessive econometric and
mathematical treatment to which it had
been subjected by neo-classical
economists. In this framework, there is increasing significance of the
underdevelopment /dependency approach. This approach views the economics
foundation of society a necessary pre-requeiste for a proper understanding of social policies
and development mainly in the developing countries. These scholars argued,
contrary to what modernization theorists claims that the increased
participation of developing countries in the world economy would break their
economies by expanding the gap between
the rich and the poor on the international as well as the national level. By
implication, economic dependence and resource transfer would distort the
development process in the developing countries, thus resulting to
socio-economic conditions , which André
Gunder Frank regarded as the
“development of under
development’. So, new economics have to pave way for external aid and foreign
investment. The set back of this new development is neo-colonialism through
which western capitalists have been able to assume indirect influence on the
African states and enhance continued relations of imperialist exploitation of
the peripheral states.
The expectation
in international political is that there must be independent decision not
considered in the light of external factors which would inhabit the making of
the decision, be it, economic, political or cultural. In the absence of such
independence, the sovereign state so affected can not be regarded as enjoying
‘real” independence. The ‘dependency theory’ conceptualizes the inhibition
which sovereign states experience in taking decisions on international issues. The dependency theory seeks to explain how
economically weaker nations by the stronger ones, are tied down as a result of
the economic, cultural and ideological
bankruptcy theory are seen in the light
of economic dependence through the grant of economic aids, cultural servitude in the form of cultural pollution
the weaker nations by the stronger ones
using the weapons of religion and education. Dependency could manifest
through political subservience as in the case of political groupings borne out
of political ties. Given the background
of the dependency theory, international decision-making process which embraces
perception, choice and expectation will be
considered against the influence of the agreements which constrains a
sovereign state faced with a decision.
The dependency theory should not be seen one –sidedly
as a result of the weaker nation in relation to the strong nation. There is
inter-dependence among nations in the industrial world today on what Karl
Deutsch called “symmetrical inter- dependence” with changes in one creating
changes in another. Dependency theory can therefore be referred to as two-way affair, each
sovereign state whether industrialized or less –developed is not left in
isolation and world not be unmindful of
the diverse or positive consequences of
its international policy. Dependency
when perceived in form of resource flow, in the aspect of who gives and who
receives in the form of aids, usually
with strings, the concept becomes determined.