Who among the following scholars argued that “capital created underdev

Who among the following scholars argued that “capital created underdevelopment not because it exploited the undeveloped world, but because it did not exploit it enough”?

Bill Warren
Paul Baran
Geoffrey Kay
Lenin
This question was previously asked in
UPSC CDS-2 – 2017
Bill Warren is the scholar who made the argument that “capital created underdevelopment not because it exploited the undeveloped world, but because it did not exploit it enough”.
This quote is a central theme in Bill Warren’s work, particularly in his book *Imperialism: Pioneer of Capitalism* (published posthumously in 1980). Warren, a Marxist, critiqued dependency theory and argued against the idea that imperialism solely created underdevelopment. He contended that capitalism, historically, played a progressive role by introducing capitalist social relations and development potential, and that the *failure* of true capitalist development and exploitation in the periphery was the reason for continued underdevelopment, rather than excessive exploitation by advanced capitalist nations.
Paul Baran was a key figure in early dependency theory, arguing that capitalism actively created underdevelopment in the periphery through surplus extraction. Geoffrey Kay also contributed to Marxist theories of development and underdevelopment, often engaging with Warren’s arguments. Lenin’s work on imperialism (`Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism`) focused on the economic roots of inter-imperialist rivalry and the export of capital but did not frame the underdevelopment argument in the terms of insufficient exploitation as Warren did.
Exit mobile version