Debate on capitalism and development: The theories of Samir Amin and Bill Warren

Abstract

Disputes, in recent years, over the significance of capitalist development in the Third World have ranged between those holding to the dependency theories of Frank and Amin and the proponents of the argument, associated with Warren, that capitalism provides the dynamic thrust of development. This dispute has often been referred to as the dialogue of the deaf because different meanings have been attached to the idea of development. Haldun Gülalp, however, argues here that the ideal of development is common to both schools and that developmentalism has subsumed Marxist analyses of class and change in the world division of labour. He shows why capitalism has been conflated with imperialism, in the case of Warren, and why socialism, for Amin, is nothing other than some ideal model of auto-centric capitalism.