Underlying every branch of social science is an epistemology, a fundamental abstract and unifying principle bout how we are to recognize the structure or object of knowledge. In the conceptualization of development economies, two models are common (the classical and the radical) in the explanation of underdevelopment. We will suggest that the epistemology underlying the radical model is more satisfying in enabling us to form a theory to explain the condition of the exploited part of the world which the classical theorists would regard as underdeveloped.
In the following pages three inter-related theories of knowledge that bring into proper focus the underlying principles by which the dynamics of political economy is to be explained and understood will be discussed.
