A-Level Sociology: global development
Global Development is one of the four options in the second section of Paper 2 in A-level Sociology (for example, AQA A-level Sociology 7192). It asks why some countries are rich and others poor, which strategies promote development, and what role transnational corporations, non-governmental organisations and international agencies play. This material covers the theories and the main areas of the option.
The quiz opens with the theories. You place an invented country in Rostow's stages of growth, recognise Frank's dependency theory in an argument about a former colony, locate a country in Wallerstein's semi-periphery, and identify the neoliberal thinking behind structural adjustment programmes. Two questions on aid set Moyo's argument that aid breeds dependency against the 'big push' view, and ask what tied aid is and why Marxists such as Hayter see it as serving donors.
Further questions cover trade and dependence on primary products, the competing views of transnational corporations, the bottom-up approach of NGOs, the informal sector in rapidly growing cities, sustainable development as defined by the Brundtland Report, and the feminisation of labour in export processing zones. War and conflict, health, education and demographic change appear in the flashcards and written work.
Each quiz question describes an invented country, company, charity or government, has one defensible answer, and comes with an explanation that sets the right view against the theory that would disagree, which is what extended answers on this option require.
The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz explains each answer. The 16-card flashcard deck covers the key concepts, from Rostow's stages to Kaldor's new wars and the demographic transition. The printable written work sets eight open questions, from comparing modernisation and dependency theory to assessing the role of aid, with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who asks one question at a time, follows up on your reasoning and gives brief feedback at the end.
Use it if you are studying the Global Development option, or to add a global dimension to answers on stratification and on globalisation and crime.
- Compare modernisation, dependency, world systems and neoliberal theories of development
- Evaluate aid and trade as development strategies, including tied aid, structural adjustment and dependence on primary products
- Assess the roles of transnational corporations, NGOs and international agencies
- Explain urbanisation, the informal sector and sustainable development
- Explain gender, health, education, demographic change and conflict as aspects of development
Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Global Development option of A-level Sociology specifications (for example AQA A-level Sociology 7192, specification version 1.2, section 4.2.6). UK aid figures: House of Commons Library, UK aid: reducing spending to 0.3% of GNI by 2027/28 (2025).
Sample question
A writer argues that an invented former colony is poor not because it lacks Western values, but because for centuries its wealth has been extracted by richer countries, first through colonialism and now through unequal trade, so that it was actively underdeveloped. Which theory is this?
- Neoliberalism
- Post-development theory
- Modernisation theory
- Dependency theory (Frank)
See the answer
Dependency theory (Frank)
Frank's dependency theory argues that the world capitalist system is divided into a metropolis (rich core countries) and satellites (poor countries) whose surplus is extracted by the metropolis, so underdevelopment is caused by exploitation: the 'development of underdevelopment'. Modernisation theory blames internal cultural and economic barriers. Critics point to countries such as South Korea that developed while integrated into world capitalism.