Immanuel Wallerstein extended this into world-systems theory, analyzing the global economy as a single integrated system with core, semi-periphery, and periphery zones, where movement between zones is structurally constrained. It implicitly positioned Western, industrialized nations as the endpoint of a universal trajectory.
Classical Specialization, Capital Flows, and Structural Transformation in Development
Thinkers like Andre Gunder Frank argued that underdevelopment was not a pre-modern stage but a direct outcome of exploitation within the global capitalist system. The Washington Consensus of the 1980s and 90s epitomized this view, promoting fiscal discipline, privatization, and deregulation.
Complementing this, endogenous growth theory, advanced by Paul Romer and Robert Lucas, argues that knowledge and human capital are the primary engines of long-term growth. While credited with sparking growth in several economies, its rigid application also drew criticism for exacerbating inequality and failing to account for institutional vacuums.
Classical Specialization Driving Structural Transformation in Development
Sustainability, Equity, and the Anthropocene. Modernization and Linear Stages The Post-War Consensus and Its Assumptions Following World War II, modernization theory dominated thinking, heavily influenced by Walt Rostow’s “Stages of Economic Growth.
More About Theories of economic development
Looking at Theories of economic development from another angle can help expand the discussion and give readers a second clear paragraph under the same section.
More perspective on Theories of economic development can make the topic easier to follow by connecting earlier points with a few simple takeaways.
