Modernization vs. Dependency

MODERNIZATION VS. DEPENDENCY The modernization perspective is behavioral or microsociological – the primary focus is on individuals or aggregates of individuals, their values, attitudes, and beliefs. The dependency perspective, by contrast, is structural or macrosociological – its focus is on the mode of production, patterns of international trade, political and economic linkages between elites in peripheral and central countries, group and class alliances and conflicts, and so on. (Valenzuela & Valenzuela, 1978) Each perspective has its own strengths and …

…environment. While the Modernization theory focuses mainly on the people, it seems to me that Dependency theory does take that into account in some small way, as is determined by the more powerful influences such as trade, politics, class conflicts, etc. Dependency theory seems a little more involved and complex, and examines numerous factors in determining the development or underdevelopment of a certain country, and how each country is affected by another – advanced or backward.