Dependency theory grew from disillusion with the notion that the integration of technologically backward economies into the world market would be a decisive stimulant for social, political and economic development. Its postwar roots can be traced to the structuralist school which emphasised the importance of state intervention to direct this process. Dependency arguments demand further qualifications of the nature of the state which performs this function in the interests of specified classes or sections. With heightened economic contradictions over the coming decade, this perspective must increase in importance, as will the difficult task of combining political, social and economic analysis, characteristic of much dependency work. Meanwhile, the proposition that a global capitalism could bring only negligible longterm improvement in conditions for the majorities of particular populations can be neither controverted nor branded ‘unmarxist’ on the basis of certain well‐known quotations from Marx and Lenin: nor refuted by postwar evidence from the NICs. That question should provide substance for both marxist and non‐marxist analyses.