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Can the situation of the growing marginalization that most under-developed countries are undergoing today be explained by the theses on imperialism? It must be admitted that today these are ineffective. International trade as well as the internationalization of movements of capital takes place mainly between developed countries. For the latter, their relations with underdeveloped countries are no longer essential, although they may be lucrative. Forms of domination have changed. Some underdeveloped countries have become industrialised; most of them have been marginalized. The relations carried on with the economies of the Center, although they are profitable, have lost much of their importance. With the growth of the debt of Third World countries and with the globalisation of finance after the liberalisation of financial markets, financial dependency tends to become the determining factor for many underdeveloped countries. It leads to a more pronounced social stratification within these countries. Their impoverishment results on one hand in the growing wealth of the dominant social groups and, on the other, in a greater exploitation of those who hold salaried positions and in the exclusion of the most poverty-stricked.