Since the 1960s, dependency theory generalized from the Latin American experience, applying it to the rest of the world. Wallerstein (1974, 1980, 1989) advocated his theory of a world economic system which consisted of concentric rings-the 'core' countries of the West, a 'semiperiphery' and the 'periphery'-a differentiation made possible by history.
The core states industrialized first and acquired a decisive advantage over the rest of the world. Peripheral states are those that cater to the needs of the core and are wilfully prevented from developing higher industrial skills. The semi-periphery is the middle category of states that can move in either direction, and may include one-time core states that have lost their states.
The whole system reflects an international division of labour. A basic nature of this system is the transference of surplus from the periphery to the core. P. P. Rey (1971, 1973), a French sociologist, added to the idea of dualism by advancing a more refined notion of the 'articulation of modes of production'.
Hе argued that underdevelopment in certain areas of the world was largely due to the nature of indigenous society. In the West, feudalism led to capitalism because of the attitude of the feudal upper class. In the rest of the world, which had not experienced European feudalism, the integration of a society into the world economy through trade and investment results in a strengthening of the existing governing classes, reinforcing their resistance to the extension of capitalism.
Caporaso and Behrour (1981) stated: 'dependency refers to a structural condition in which a healthy integrated system cannot complete its economic cycle except by an exclusive (or limited) reliance on an external complement'.
According to Wallerstein in the world economic system reflects: