Did recent trends in world society make multinational corporations penetration irrelevant?: Looking back on Volker Bornschier's development theory in the light of recent evidence

This article first investigates the determination of 14 indicators of development in 109 countries with complete data based on MNC penetration on development in the 1990s and beyond, with such "new" indicators as "Islamic culture" or "adherence to the Washington consensus". A consequence of the "dependency" analysis of this essay is the realization that a reliance on foreign capital in the short term also in the 1990s might bring about positive consequences for employment but that the long-term negative consequences of dependence in the social sphere, but also for sustainable development, outweigh the immediate, positive effects. The integration of the countries of the periphery into larger currency blocs will be one of the most important tasks for international development strategies for years to come. EU membership in the world economy fails to have sufficiently enough dynamic effects and its democratic deficits become ever more clear. The empirical record speaks a clear language in favor of Islamic democracy and against those in the West that attempt to treat Islamic cultural heritage as a general development burden. It should be also clear that a reliance on the "Washington Consensus" alone will not "fix" the performance of countries beyond a better and more predictable "development stability"