Such theories drew on imperialist economic relations, but were applied to the post-colonial period, especially in countries where economic independence did not follow political independence. The key concepts were dominance and dependence, as the summary provided by Dudley Seers shows: foreign capital and transfer of technology play a negative role in the receiving region; the internal policies of the receiving region are inconsequential in comparison to the power of the international forces so there must be strong government intervention; there are no benefi ts in the form of development (as measured by an improvement in the quality of life) in the less developed country; the role of international capitalism is great in generating the expansion of industrial capitalist countries while underdeveloping the receiving regions; there is blocked development in the receiving region.
In other words, dependency prevents development and industrialization except of a distorted kind. In contrast to those that view the negative effects of trade among regions of differing levels of development as insignifi cant, adherents of dependency theories claim that those effects are at the forefront of all intraregional and extraregional economic relations. They further claim that the less developed (usually agricultural) regions are at a disadvantage when exchanging their product with the more developed (nonagricultural) regions. The key to this analysis is the nature of the region’s output, namely, the region’s economic base, and the consequent dependency on the international markets that develops (with respect to both the sale of their primary product and the purchase of inputs and technology for production). Agricultural regions are at a disadvantage because they face unfavorable terms of trade when they export primary products. Such terms of trade have repercussions on income, technology, and development, all of which become characterized by a dependent link to outside economies.
Most components of dependency theories went out of fashion in the 80s and 90s, since those decades were characterized by the promotion of market economies and big capitalism. Yet, at the turn of the new millennium some dependency concepts have been resurging. Indeed, those who are opposed to globalization and view it as an American-led method of global exploitation might also recognize some features of dependency.
Tourism has borne the brunt of the contemporary dependency literature. Britton applied the original dependency theory of the 1970s to tourism,55 while Hall and Tucker edited a volume on the contribution of postcolonialism to tourism studies. The terms “neo-colonialism” and “imperialism” have been used repeatedly in the literature. Both are part of the discussion below on dependency in tourism that focuses on key issues of the dependency scholarship.
Medical Tourism and the Problem of Dependency
