The theory that less developed countries are poor because they allow themselves to be exploited by the developed countries through international trade and investment.

A theory of the relationship between industrialized (core) countries and less developed (periphery) countries that stresses the many linkages that exist to make LDCs dependent on richer countries.

derived from radicalism, an explanation of poverty and underdevelopment in developing countries based on their historical dependence and domination by rich countries (74)

Belief that development and underdevelopment were not stages but part of the same process; that development and growth of some areas such as Western Europe were achieved at the expense of underdevelopment of dependent regions such as Latin America. (p. 775)

Dependency theory is a body of social science theories, both from developed and developing nations, that create a worldview which suggests that poor underdeveloped states of the periphery are exploited by wealthy developed nations of the centre, in order to sustain economic growth and remain wealthy.