Assess the extent to which models and theories, such as the North-South Divide and dependency theory, are useful in helping to understand the development gap

The Development gap refers to the widening difference in levels of development between the world's richest and poorest nations. There are a number of models and theories that exist to explain this gap such as the North-South Divide and Dependency theories. Both theories intend to explain the causes of the development gap based on the varying levels of economic development and how these varied levels interact with one another.
The Dependency Theory is useful at helping to understand the development gap as it explains how economic development is spatially controlled by encouraging it in one area at the expense of another. A.G Frank's theory states that economically developed nations have a rich core where the majority of economic activity occurs and an under-developed periphery. Frank argues that developed nations maintain a development gap by deliberately maintaining under development in the periphery. Furthermore, by exploiting cheap resources and skilled workers and ensuring that they benefit the economic cores as opposed to the peripheries. This means that peripheries are unable to exploit these resources and labour forces and cultivate their own economies but rather are forced to supplement the core economies. However, there are weaknesses present in the dependency theories validity to understanding the development gap. The Asian Tiger economies for example do not align with A.G Frank's spatial model on the economic cores and peripheries. These nations now form part of the BRICs, achieving this through the opening up of free trade between these economies, rather than being stunted by richer Western core economies. Consequently, it could be argued that Frank's dependency theory is outdate and less significant by the rapid development of the BRICs and Tiger economies.