Socialism and Dependency in Parsons' Theory of Evolution*

According to Parsons' theory of evolution, socialist (communist) societies deviate from the progressive line of evolutionary development. But Parsons' empirical analyses indicate that socialist societies exhibit many of the features which, according to his theory, are supposed to characterize societies at the apex of evolutionary development. An endeavor to elicit from Parsons' works plausible solutions to this contradiction fails. Juxtaposing Parsons' treatment of the relationships between the developed and the underdeveloped societies to that of the imperialism-dependency theory it is found that the assumptions, propositions, and interpretations of the two are incompatible, or even diametrically opposed to each other. Moreover, Parsons completely disregards the rich theoretical and empirical research emanating from the school of imperialism-dependency. It is concluded that Parsons' theory of evolution can explain neither the socialist path, of development, nor can it address the issue of change of underdeveloped countries within the context of the contemporary world system.