The ideas of Samir Amin: Theory or tautology?

Abstract

This paper presents an exposition and a critique of the ideas of Samir Amin. Section I summarises Amin's views on the necessity of an analysis of under development at the world level, on the nature of peripheral economies, and on the economic relationships between centre and periphery. Section II provides a critique of these ideas, in terms of both their logical consistency and their implications for research and for economic policy. Section III draws together these criticisms. The paper concludes that Samir Amin's ideas are logically inconsistent, tautological, and imprudent in the sense that they effectively pre‐empt theoretically and politically important work on specific economies, institutions and agencies.