Approach to the Unit and Human Development approach

Abstract

This study outlines the general lines of two major approaches to Development Economics, emphasizing the transition from one to the other. On the one hand, the Dependency School that is forged in the 60's and 70's, considers that underdevelopment is due to the asymmetries in the terms of exchange, that is, the link to the international market is done in colonial terms where the central economies appropriate the economic surplus generated by the peripheral countries, this as a cause of technological backwardness, the non-transfer of knowledge and the international division of labor. On the other hand, the Human Development approach arose in the late 1980s, unlike the dependentist approach, which suggests that the causes of underdevelopment are profound inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth, that is, lack of opportunities that individuals face. In this last approach, proposing solutions is more feasible than in the first, since governments or other non-governmental organizations can propose policies aimed at improving basic needs.