Review : Peripheral Capitalist Development Revisited PAUL BOWLES

Introduction The effect of imperialism on the economic development of Third World countries has long been a subject of interest to Marxist scholars. The international expansion of capitalist states, which led to the creation of a world market and the integration of pre-capitalist countries into this market, heralded a new phase of capitalism the implications of which are still being debated. The dominant view of post-war Marxists has been that imperialism created and perpetuated underdevelopment in the Third World. These countries, conceptually located in the periphery of the world capitalist system, have had their development blocked as a result of their economic relations with the imperialist countries. Capitalism, while successfulin developing the productive forces in the countries now at the centre of the capitalist world market, is not capable of performing the same role in the periphery. The solution for the Third World involves 'delinking' from the world economy, self-reliance and socialism.While this has been, and probably still is, the dominant view in postwar Marxist analysis, it has not gone unchallenged. Some scholars, working within the Marxist tradition, have argued that imperialism has, in fact, had a very favourable impact on the Third World in terms of stimulating the development of 'the productive forces. Furthermore, these scholars argue that the end of direct colonial rule in many parts of the world has