If the 1970s (in contrast to the optimistic 'sixties) were the decade of pessimism, in academic circles, about the prospects for capitalist development at the periphery, then it was the diffusion to the rest of the world of the gloomy views of the Latin American dependency school that was largely to blame. Soon, however, the pendulum began to swing in the opposite direction in recent years the dependency approach has come under sustained attack in the literature cg Warren 1973, Lall 1975, Leys 19771, and its predictions have ostensibly been challenged by the rapid economic growth achieved recently by a number of underdeveloped countries, such as Brazil, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

This issue of the Bulletin looks at the question of whether the dependency approach can now in fact be pronounced dead. It consists partly of articles evaluating either the approach in general or the work of particular theorists, and partly of articles considering the implications of the experience and prospects of five reasonably successful peripheral economies; Iran, Costa Rica. South Korea, Singapore and Ireland.