The Power Theory of Development A Short Presentation

Abstract

This paper is a short presentation of a theory first propounded in an earlier paper, International Power and Southeast Asian Development, published in this journal.1 In that paper, the theory's possible strategic application to the ASEAN region was examined and the option of a strategy of open self-reliant regionalism discussed. This paper now pre sents the power theory as a development theory which has its roots in the two extreme theoretical viewpoints to be found in current develop ment thought. In the discussion that follows, I have delineated the main outline of these two schools of thought and presented the power theory of development as a refinement of a theoretical model which has been evolved from a possible synthesis of these two theoretical extremi ties. This is followed by a presentation of the theory's distinct interpreta tion of development. The power theory of development2 relates a nation's development or underdevelopment to its possession or non-possession, and use or non use of international power for such purposes. The power of a nation is seen here to be based either on the attributes of the nation itself, or on its set of relations with other nations.3 Control over resources is necessary if they are to be applied to a nation's development and such control is determined by a nation's possession and use of international power. In this, we see an interdisciplinary theoretical approach to the under standing of development where the distribution and use of scarce resources ? the subject matter of economics ? is determined by power ? the subject matter of politics ? and where both the above-mentioned are understood within a sociological perspective of international power dependence relations.