The marginalization of social welfare in developing countries: The relevance of theories of social policy development

Social welfare development has been marginalized in many developing countries. This study examines the social policies of developing countries and refers to four major theories of social policy development (social conscience, modernization, dependency and diffusion) to see if they offer an explanation of the phenomenon. It is argued that dependency theory and diffusion theory provide better interpretations than the other two theories. The paper shows how theories of social policy have international relevance in explaining current trends in social welfare.