World System, Class, and State in Third World Development

Abstract

The currently popular political economy approach to Third World development is divided in terms of three primary foci of analysis: (1) dependency or the world economic system; (2) the internal class structure and class struggles; and (3) the peripheral capitalist state. This article examines the basic ideas involved in these three approaches and seeks to integrate them into a single framework. The basic assumption of this framework is that the pattern of capital accumulation and socioeconomic change in Third World countries are shaped by world-system, class, and state factors jointly, rather than independently of one another. Only by looking at interactions among these structural factors can concrete ways in which each of them influences the pattern of accumulation be illuminated. Of the three sets of factors, this article highlights the role of the Third World state in linking the world system and class forces to the development process.