Class Activity 
Question- Compare and contrast the core tenets of the modernisation and dependency theories

Modernisation theories believed that if Less Developed Countries (LDC’s) are to be developed they have to let go of the traditional-orientated cultures which are seen by modernisation theories as backward hindering the process of modernisation. The theory holds the concept that poor countries are poor because they are yet to develop into modern economies and that their failure to do so is largely because of internal factors such as the countries resistance to free-market principles or the absence of western values that drive material success.
Walt Whitman Rostow developed stages of growth within the modernisation theory, which include:
-all societies begin from a common baseline of traditional underdevelopment and undergoes a linear transformation along a development continuum of economic and social change from traditional to modern
-underdevelopment is viewed as an initial condition of LDC’s and for countries to become MDC’s they have to adopt the experiences of the North 
-emphasis is also placed on economic growth using indices such as GDP, therefore growth and development are seen as the same thing
-prior the implementation stage, modern and traditional societies reflect a dual economy existing side by side
Dependence can be defined as a situation where the development and expansion of one economy is at the expense of another economy to which the first is subjected. The Dependency Theory is the relation of interdependence between two or more economies. 
It was created in the 1960’s as an outcome of the failure of the modernisation theory to address the underdevelopment of the third world countries. Traditional dependency theory aims at achieving radical change in the country. It is a tool that can be used to effectively explain global inequalities. The theory challenges the basic tenet of the modernisation theory that countries fail to modernise because they lack the values that first world countries possess which lead to modernisation. 
The Dependency Theory advances that all contemporary societies are integrated into a single world economic system, which is capitalist. The theory argues that first world countries are poor because they have been and continue to be exploited by the first world countries and this exploitation evolved from colonialism. 
In a nutshell, the dependency theory aims at achieving a systematic change to solve the problems in the country caused by existing national and international economic and political systems.