Imperialism and Dependency in Latin America: A View of the New Reality of Multinational Investment

Abstract

The fundamental reality of Latin America during the 1970s will be the efforts of governments to reduce their countries' dependence on the developed world and thereby increase their autonomy within the international system. A salient aspect of this effort is and will be a redefinition of the role multinational corporations play in Latin American societies. Foreign investment will continue to play an important part in the economic life of the region, but the acceptable characteristics and behaviors of multinational corporations will differ substantially from those which were prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s.The rationale for a restructuring of the relationship of Latin American economies with the system of international trade and investment is found in the writings of “dependence theorists” such as Theotonio Dos Santos (1970) and Osvaldo Sunkel (1972). In a sense, their approach can be seen as a development of the Prebisch thesis of the 1950s, which held that Latin American economies were being systematically diverted from attaining their true potential through the workings of the international trade mechanism.