'Peripheral Capitalism', Beyond 'Dependency' and 'Modernisation'

Abstract

It is in the developing societies that problems relating to the co-existence of social formations of different ages, to the transition from one structural system to another, crop up most vividly and in a practical way. They confront us with patterns which are constantly in the process of formation and crystallisation; and in that process, they reveal the importance of the two levels at which, respectively, the powers of various kinds operate (political level, in the wide sense) and values are engendered (cultural level, in the wide sense). The problems at present confronting the development societies shed light on those of the more 'advanced' societies, and vice-versa. In both cases, the society through the dialectic of continuity and discontinuities, takes cognisance of itself as a continuing creation — as existing in the present and projected in the future. (Balandier, 1972.)