ANDRÉ GUNDER FRANK: DEPENDENCY THEORY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS - DUDAS - 2025

André Gunder Frank (1929-2005) was a German-born economist and sociologist. His most internationally recognized contribution is dependency theory, which deals with why less developed countries fail to improve their economies adequately.

Frank belongs to the neo-Marxist current of economic science and he considered himself a radical economist. His writings and thoughts enjoyed much popularity in Latin America from the 1960s on, when the author lived in various countries in the region.

University of Chicago, where Frank studied economics

Part of his studies were carried out at the University of Chicago, the place where the neoliberal economist current was developing at that time. He wrote numerous books in which he analyzed the economic sociology of the world. His works received praise and criticism alike, the latter even from groups ideologically close to the author.

His other facet was that of a professor: he taught at various Latin American universities, such as Brasilia or the Autonomous University of Mexico. He passed away after fighting cancer for 12 years, but never stopped working.

Biography of André Gunder Frank

Early age

André Gunder was born in Berlin, Germany, on February 24, 1929. The arrival of the Nazis to power forced his family to leave the country, establishing their residence in Switzerland. Already during World War II they moved to the United States, where he studied in high school.

When choosing a university subject, the young man opted for economics and entered the University of Chicago. He obtained his doctorate in 1957, presenting a thesis on agriculture in the Soviet Union.

At that time, the University of Chicago was one of the most important centers in the field of economics. In this, the appearance of a group of economists who were going to be very important in the spread of neoliberalism throughout the world was brewing.

Frank, with neo-Marxist ideas totally contrary to that group, acknowledged that the debates that took place there reaffirmed his beliefs.

After finishing his studies, he made contact with the Latin American reality. She traveled and lived in various countries, such as Brazil, Mexico and Chile. The author was trapped by the socio-economic and political reality and became involved in leftist movements.

Stay in Chile

Of all those countries, perhaps it was Chile that marked Gunder Frank the most. He settled there in 1967 and began to frequent the country's academic circles. His wife was of that nationality and this contributed to his incorporation into Chilean intellectual life.

Frank brought to the leftist movements the neo-Marxist principles that some Americans were propagating. In addition, he warned about the neoliberal thinking developed in Chicago by thinkers like Friedman.

Travel and death

Frank and his wife had to leave Chile because of the coup led by Pinochet. One of the aspects that made him feel worse was the poor treatment he received from the US government.

Frank had decided to abandon the nationality of that country and return to the German and that felt very bad in his old host country.

The author traveled all over the world, from Canada to the Netherlands, but he never ceased to consider himself part Latin American. The presence in almost the entire continent of military dictatorships was a great displeasure for him.

Another blow took him when his wife died, an affliction that would not leave him until his own death. After being widowed, he was residing in Canada and, already under the Clinton administration, he was allowed to work in the United States.

His last days were spent in Luxembourg, where he died on April 23, 2005, victim of a cancer against which he was fighting for 12 years.

Dependency theory

The antecedent of Frank's work on dependency theory dates back to the 1940s. In that decade, the Argentine Raúl Prebisch began to launch the idea about the difference in development between the center and the periphery. It was in Santiago de Chile where the debate opened by this theory gained more force.

The basic idea of ​​dependency theory is that the world economy always ends up hurting the least developed countries. To make it more understandable, its authors used the metaphor of the center and the periphery.

Thus, the (undeveloped) periphery has an assigned role of raw material supplier; while profits and industrialization remain in the center.

Starting in the 1960s, authors such as Marini or Frank himself developed this theory much more in depth.

Gunder Frank's vision

Gunder Frank's point of view on dependency theory can be clearly seen by reading his own words:

“Underdevelopment is not a consequence of the survival of archaic institutions, of the lack of capital in the regions that have stayed away from the torrent of world history; on the contrary, underdevelopment has been and is still generated by the same historical process that also generates the economic development of capitalism itself ”.

According to his writings, world trade has mechanisms that prevent peripheral countries from improving, keeping them in a poverty convenient for them. Some of these mechanisms are:

- The global market only allows the periphery to act as exporters of raw materials or as consumers of already manufactured products. It leaves no option for them to be made in their own countries.

- Central nations have monopolized all technological development, increasing the prices of products.

- If any of the peripheral economy countries improves, the market achieves that, due to the price difference, imports increase and exports stagnate.

Contributions to the economy

The ideas of Gunder Frank and his supporters did not stop at theory alone. Some Latin American countries began to put into practice some maneuvers to avoid stagnating in underdevelopment.

Among these movements, trade protectionism stood out, with the imposition of tariffs and controls on foreign products. Similarly, an attempt was made to create a structure that would make it possible to manufacture products that were previously imported.

Another of the policies developed was monetary. The coins were overvalued, in order to buy cheaper.

Although this worked for a time, especially in the 70s, in the end the pressure from the central countries using the external debt that the peripherals had always had, forced a change in the strategy.

World system theory

One of Frank's last contributions was his theory of the world system. It is almost a historical-economic work in which, from a Marxist point of view, he reviews social and political relations during history.

The author speaks of the existence of what he calls the world-system. According to Frank, at first this world system had China as its center, but the discovery of America and its riches moved it to Europe. Today, he envisaged a return from that world center to Asia.

Other contributions

Another idea that the author developed in his works was his vision that America was installed in capitalism since the 16th century.

He also affirmed that there is a lumpen-bourgeoisie throughout the continent, with a stunted and very vulnerable development. Finally, he carried out a comprehensive study on the effects of external debt in developing countries.

Main works

- Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America, 1967

- Latin America: underdevelopment or revolution, 1969

- Sociology of development and underdevelopment of sociology: the development of underdevelopment, 1969

- Lumpenburguesía: lumpendevelopment. Dependence, class and politics in Latin America, 1972

- On capitalist underdevelopment, 1975

- Capitalism and economic genocide, 1976

- The world accumulation 1492 - 1789, 1978

- Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment, 1978

- Transforming the Revolution: Social Movements in the World System (with Samir Amin, Giovanni Arrighi & Immanuel Wallerstein), 1990

- The underdevelopment of development: an autobiographical essay, 1991

References

1. Dos Santos, Theodonio. André Günder Frank died. Obtained from tool.com.ar
2. Economy and Management. Theories of underdevelopment. Obtained from abc.com.py
3. García Menéndez, José Ramón. In memoriam: André Gunder Frank, economist, sociologist… teacher. Obtained from elpais.com
4. Seddon, David. Andre Gunder Frank. Retrieved from independent.co.uk
5. Review Sociology. Dependency Theory. Retrieved from revisesociology.com
6. Uwazie, I. U, Igwemma, AA, Ukah, FI Contributions of Andre Gunder Frank to the Theory of Development and Underdevelopment: Implications on Nigeria's Development Situation. Retrieved from iiste.org
7. Kay, Cristobal. Andre Gunder Frank: 'Unity in Diversity' from the Development of Underdevelopment to the World System. Retrieved from tandfonline.com
8. Lawrence H. Simon David F. Ruccio. A methodological analysis of dependency theory: Explanation in Andre Gunder Frank. Recovered from sciencedirect.com