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² We are referring to such writers as Olson, L.The Political Economy of Aging: The State, Private Power and Social Welfare. Columbia University Press, New York, 1982.Google ScholarMyles, J. F. ‘The aged, the state and the structure of inequality’. In Harp, J. and Hofley, J. (eds). Structured Inequality in Canada, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N J., 1980, pp. 317–342.Google ScholarEstes, C. L., Swan, J. H. and Gerard, L. E. ‘Dominant and competing paradigms in gerontology: towards a political economy of ageing’, Ageing and Society, 2, 2 (1982), 151–164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarWalker, A. ‘Toward a policy economy of old age’, Ageing and Society, 1, 1 (1981), 73–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarGuillmard, A. M. ‘Old age, retirement and the social class structure’. In Hareven, T. K. and Davis, K. J. (eds.), Ageing and Life Course Transitions. Tavistock Publications, London, 1982, pp. 221–243.Google ScholarHendricks, J. ‘The elderly in society: beyond modernization’, Social Science History, 6 (1982), 321–345.Google Scholar

³ In this paper we will be using the terms Third World countries, dependent nations and developing regions interchangeably. The basic thesis of this article is that Third World countries are not in some kind of natural state of underdevelopment, a condition to be rectified if they follow a path of economic growth patterned after that of developed market economies. This cannot happen because Third World countries are dependent nations, not just less developed capitalist nations. Nevertheless, we recognise that the term ‘developing’ is used extensively in UN and other documents. Therefore, it is frequently employed in our discussion. It follows from the above that centrally planned economies have been excluded from both the theoretical arguments and data used in the paper.

⁴ While not inclusive, some of these works are: Beattie, Walter, M. Jr. ‘Transcultural Aspects of Aging’, paper presented at the Sixth International Conference of Social Gerontology, 12 1978Google Scholar, Mohammerdra, Morocco. Cowgill, D. O. and Holmes, L. D.Aging and Modernization. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1972.Google ScholarCowgill, D. O. ‘Aging and Modernization: a revision of the theory’. In Hendricks, J. and Hendricks, C. D. (eds.), Dimensions of Aging, Winthrop, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 54–67.Google ScholarDenton, Carlos. Costa Rica and Central America. Centre International de Gérontologie Sociale, monograph series, Paris, 1981.Google ScholarFinley, G. ‘Aging in Latin America’, Spanish Language Psychology, 1 (1981), 223–248.Google ScholarFinley, G. ‘Modernization and Aging’. In Review of Human Development, Field, T. et al. (eds.). Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1982.Google Scholar Heath, Angela. The Aged in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature. For International Federation of Aging in preparation for the World Assembly on Aging, 1982, Washington, 13 August 1981. Hendricks, Jon. ‘The elderly in society: beyond modernization’, revision of a paper presented to the Gerontological Society of America, San Diego, California, November 1980. International Handbook on Aging: Contemporary Developments and Research, Erdman, Palmore (ed.), Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1980.Google ScholarLittle, V. ‘Homemaker-home help service in developing countries’. In Home-Help Services for the Aging Around the World. International Federation on Aging, Washington, D.C., pp. 32–42.Google ScholarMuller, Maria Saturnina. ‘Some aspects of the older population in Argentina’, Demographic Aspects of Social Disparities. Liège, Belgium: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 1973, pp. 83–85.Google ScholarReaching the Aged: Social Services in Forty-Four Countries. Teicher, M., Thursz, D. and Vigilante, J. (eds.), Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications 1979.Google ScholarTapia-Videla, , Jorge, I. and Fairish, C. ‘Aging, development and social service delivery systems in Latin America: problems and prospects’, Ageing and Society, 2, 1 (03 1982), 31–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ United Nations General Assembly, thirty-fifth session. Problems of the Elderly and the Aged. Draft Programme and Arrangements for the World Assembly on the Elderly. Report of the Secretary-General. 13 03 1980, p. 11.

⁶ Ibid. p. 10.

⁷ Examples of the latter are the works of Myerhoff, B. ‘Aging and the aged in other cultures: an anthropological perspective’. In Benwens, E. E. (ed.), The Anthropology of Health. C. V. Mosby, St Louis, 1978.Google ScholarAbkhasransBenet, S. Benet, S.. The Long Living People of the Caucasus. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1974.Google ScholarCox, F. and Mberia, N.Aging in a Changing Village: A Kenyan Experience. Washington, D.C., International Federation on Aging, 1977.Google ScholarGoody, J. ‘Aging in Nonindustrial Societies’. In Binstock, R. and Shanas, E. (eds.). Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976.Google Scholar

⁸ Beattie, Walter M. Jr. Aging: The Developed and Developing World.Google Scholar A report on recommendations prepared for the International Meeting on Aging. Sponsored by the Institut de la Vie under the auspices of the U.N. Fund for Population Activities. U.N. New York, 3–5 April 1978. Beattie, Walter M. Jr. Aging: A Framework of Characteristics and Considerations for Cooperative Efforts Between the Developing and Developed Regions of the World.Google Scholar Paper prepared for the Expert Group Meeting on Aging. Sponsored by the Institut de la Vie, United Nations, New York, 3–5 April 1978. Osaka, Masako. Social Participation of Rural Elderly in Developing Nations- With Special Emphasis on Their Roles in Family, Community and Economy.Google Scholar Prepared for the Center for Social Development, United Nations, 5 December 1979. Shulman, Tarek M.The Aging in Developing Countries.Google Scholar United Nations Fund for Population Activities, Working Paper, undated. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The Aging in Slums and Uncontrolled Settlements. March 1977. World Health Organization. Report of the WHO Preparatory Conference for U.N. World Assembly on Aging. Mexico City, 8–11 December 1980 (IRP/ADR 101).

⁹ United Nations General Assembly. Question of the Elderly and the Aged: Conditions, Needs and Services, and Suggested Guidelines for National Policies and International Action. Report to the Secretary-General, 28 August 1973 (A 19126), p. 18.

¹⁰ World Health Organization. Report of Preparatory Conference for United Nations World Assembly on Aging. Mexico City, 8–11 December 1980 (IRP/ADR 101 39868), p. 3.

¹¹ United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The Aging in Slums and Uncontrolled Settlements. New York, 1977 (ST/ESA/55), pp. 13 and 23.Google Scholar

¹² The following works in dependency theory were used in the preparation of this article. Amin, Samir. Accumulation on A World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment. Monthly Review Press, New York, 1974.Google ScholarAmin, Samir. Imperialism and Unequal Development. Monthly Review Press, New York, 1978.Google ScholarBambirra, Vania. Teoria de la dependencia: una anticritica. Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1978.Google ScholarCardoso, F. H. and Faletto, Enzo. Dependencia y desarrollo en America Latino. Siglo Veintiuno, Mexico City, 1969.Google ScholarCockcroft, James, Frank, and Johnson, , D. Dependence and Underdevelopment: Latin America's Political Economy. Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York, 1972.Google ScholarDos Santos, Theontonio. ‘The structure of dependence’, The American Economic Review, 60, 2 (1970), 231–236.Google ScholarFrank, Andre Gunder. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil. Monthly Review Press, New York, 1967.Google ScholarFrank, Andre Gunder. Crisis In the Third World. Holmes and Meier, New York, 1981.Google ScholarGilbert, Jorge and Hara-lambidis, , Dependency, Economic and Cultural in Latin America.Google Scholar Monograph Department of Sociology in Education. The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, 1975. Marini, Ruy Mauro. ‘World capitalist accumulation and sub-imperialism’, Two-Thirds: A Journal of Underdevelopment Studies, 1, 2 (1978), 29–40.Google ScholarMarini, Ruy Mauro. Didectica de la dependencia. Ediciones Era, Mexico City, 1973.Google ScholarNun, Jose. Latin America: The Hegemonic Crisis and the Military Coup. Berkeley: University of California, 1969.Google ScholarPetras, James. Critical Perspectives on Imperialism and Social Class in the Third World. Monthly Review Press, New York, 1978.Google ScholarQuijano, Anibal. Redefinizacion de la dependencia en America Latina. Centro de Estudias Socio-Economicos, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, 1970.Google ScholarStevenson, Paul. ‘Accumulation in the world economy and the international division of labour’, The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 17, 3 (1980), 214–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarVasconi, Tomas. Gran capital y militarizacion en America Latina. Ediciones Era, Mexico City, 1978.Google ScholarVeltmeyer, Henry. ‘A central issue in dependency theory’, The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 17, 3 (1980), 198–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarWallerstein, Immanuel (ed.). World Inequality: Origins and Perspectives on the World System. Black Rose Books, Montreal, 1975.Google Scholar Modernization theorists, whose work has influenced generations of development theorists, are the following: Hagan, Everett. On the Theory of Social Change. Dorsey Press, Homewood, 1962.Google ScholarHoselitz, Bert F.Sociological Factors in Economic Development. The Free Press, Glencoe, 1960.Google ScholarKunkel, John. ‘Values and behaviour in economic development’, EDCC 13, 3 (04 1965).Google ScholarLerner, Daniel. The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East. The Free Press, Glencoe, 1958.Google ScholarMcClelland, David. The Achieving Society. Van Nostrand, Princeton, 1961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarParsons, Talcott. The Social System. The Free Press, Glencoe, 1951.Google ScholarRostow, Walter W.The Stages of Economic Growth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1962.Google Scholar

¹³ Frank, , ‘Sociology of development and the underdevelopment of sociology’.Google Scholar In Cockcroft, , Frank, and Johnson, , op. cit. p. 325.Google Scholar The discussion of these three development theories was based on Frank's analysis. In addition, a number of studies representative of these modernisation perspectives can be found in two readers. Etzioni, A. and Etzioni, E. (eds.). Social Change. Basic Books, New York, 1964Google Scholar and Finkle, J. and Gable, R.Political Development and Social Change. Wiley, New York, 1971.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Hoselitz, as described in Frank, ibid. p. 327.

¹⁵ Rostow, , op. cit. pp. 4–39.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ ‘Primate city’ is a concept utilised by social geographers to explain urbanism in the Third World. These cities are the largest in their country; the financial, cultural and educational centres; the country's communication link to the rest of the world; a disproportionate number of services exist as compared to rural areas; and they are the centres of industrialisation. The population in these cities is usually rapidly expanding, with the poor living in slums on the periphery.

¹⁸ McClelland, . The Achieving SocietyGoogle Scholar, as quoted in Cockcroft, and Johnson, , op. cit. p. 385.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Carty, Robert and Smith, Virginia. Perpetuating Poverty: The Political Economy of Canadian Foreign Aid. Between the Lines, Toronto, 1981, p. 184.Google Scholar Carty and Smith illustrate, in the case of Canada, the continued influence of these modernisation theorists. For an in-depth analysis of these papers, as well as the regional technical meetings, see Neysmith, S. and Edwardh, E. ‘Ideological underpinnings of the World Assembly on Aging’ Canadian Journal on Aging, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1983, 125–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁰ See particularly the two background papers prepared to serve as the basis for discussions at the regional technical meetings in preparation for the 1982 World Assembly. United Nations Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. ‘Aging and Development: The Developmental Issues’ and ‘Aging and Development: The Humanitarian Issues’.

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²² Frank, . Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America, op. cit. p. 9.Google Scholar

²³ See Frank's work for discussions of capital drain; Wallerstein's work for discussion of trade relations; and Amin's work for discussions of unequal exchange.

²⁴ Frank, . ‘The development of underdevelopment’.Google Scholar In Cockcroft, , Frank, and Johnson, , op. cit. p. 10.Google Scholar

²⁵ Frank, ibid. p. 13.

²⁶ Johnson, Dale. ‘On oppressed classes’.Google Scholar In Cockcroft, Frank and Johnson, , op. cit. p. 276.Google Scholar

²⁷ This segment of Table 6 is based on the work of Frank, G.. ‘Super-exploitation in the Third World’, Two Thirds: A Journal of Underdevelopment Studies, 1, 2 (1978), 15–28.Google Scholar

²⁸ Vicente Navarro has undertaken a similar type of analysis in the field of medicine in his book Medicine Under Capitalism. Prodist, New York, 1976.

²⁹ Adiseshiah, M.. ‘The Contributions of the Elderly to Society as quoted in The Aged in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature’, by Angela Heath. International Federation of Aging. 13 08 1981, p. 22.Google Scholar

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ United Nations Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs: Technical Meeting on Aging for the Africa Region. Lagos, Nigeria: 24–27 February 1981, pp. 12 and 16. United Nations Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs: Technical Meeting on Aging: Middle East and Mediterranean Region. Valletta, Malta, 3–6 June 1980, p. 4.

³² Technical Meetings, Africa Region, op. cit. p. 10. Technical Meetings in Middle East and Mediterranean Region, op. cit. p. 11.

³³ Little, V. ‘For the elderly: an overview of services in industrially developed and developing countries’. In Teicher, M., Thursz, D. and Vigilante, J. (eds.). Reaching the Aged: Social Services in Forty-Four Countries. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, 1979, p. 154.Google Scholar

³⁴ Slums and Uncontrolled Settlements, op. cit. p. 23. The abandonment of old people has led to the establishment of such international aid organisations as Help the Aged.

³⁵ Townsend, , op. cit. p. 5.Google Scholar