... underdevelopment can be found within the Southern states themselves. For proponents of this theory, underdevelopment is a primary condition out of which all countries must evolve. They contend that development will come about through the adoption of Western values, such as the Protestant work ethic and the rewarding of innovation; accordingly, they emphasize the benefit of interdependence and international trade. The fundamental obstacle to development is "traditional culture that blocks the societal transformations necessary for rapid economic growth" (Spiegel 1995: 346); thus, by shedding traditional social, political, and economic institutions, developing states are able to develop as the Northern countries did. On the other hand, dependency theory, draws most of its insights from a branch of Maxist thought, rejects the modernization theory premise that the causes of the underdevelopment in the South are domestic in nature. It emphasizes the international context, contending that "international institutions, multinational corporations, and the states ...

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