在二次戰後，崛起許多新興「開發中國家」，在經濟上亟待積極大力開發，因而探討第三世界國家的經濟發展問題愈受世人重視。最初西方社會學者，提出以先進國家發展經驗為基礎之「現代化理論」，認為開發中國家可借鑑仿傚先進國家之發展軌跡，朝已開發之境界邁進，即可達成現代化。然証諸事實，其成效終究有限。 因此後來又有「依賴理論」趁勢崛起，主張後進國家的發展，必須從對已開發的世界核心國家的依賴中解放出來，以求得自主性的成長茁壯。以上兩種發展理論的觀點雖各有不同，然其研究目的皆欲有效剖析開發中國家所遭遇的社會經濟發展問題，尋求正確對策，以邁向現代化，擠身於先進已開發國家之林。而中山先生民生主義思想，是一套國家經濟發展藍圖，以之和現代化及依賴理論作比較，彼此間可互輝映增益。進而以這些發展理論來印証台灣早期經濟發展經驗歷程，以檢視它們的有效性與實用性。

After World War II, it brought many under-development countries, but their economics needs to be developed with great efforts. Because of this reason, we should economics development’s problem. In the beginning, the western social scholar submitted Modernization theory based on the developed country’s experience and thought the underdevelopment country can copy it and lead them to the developed country. However, the final achievement was limited. Furthermore, later Dependency theory started to develop, it claimed under-development country must be released from depending on developed country and to get the growth independently. The above two theories are from different views, but they want to find the best way to resolve under-development country’s problems and lead them to developed country. Mr. Sun Yat-sen’s Livelihood principle is the theory for the country’s economic development. If compared with Modernization theory and Dependency theory, they can help with each other. Moreover, by these theories, they can prove Taiwan’s early economic development’s experience and survey their effectiveness and practicality.