The dependency theory and development: a historical review

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Introduction Dependency theory is rooted in the work of various social scientists and political leaders such as Lenin, Baran, Frank, Wallerstein, Dos Santos and Marini. It was in fact the Brazilian exile, settled mainly in Chile and Mexico, which gave an important international resonance. Dependency theory combined sociology, economics and history, and influenced other disciplines such as philosophy, ethics, and liberation theology. It is interesting to mention that a religious framework of Catholicism was echoed, for instance, in the second conference of Latin American bishops celebrated in Medellin, Colombia in 1968. In the 1980s the scientific value of this theory was questioned, mainly due to the absence of empirical evidence to support it. At the same time, the emergence and economic success of countries such as the Republic of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, or the so-called ‘Asian Tigers’, undermined some basic premises of the theory. However, a new reading of Marx’s Manuscripts of 1861-1863 identified certain fundamental insights into the area, such as the fact that the transfer of surplus to developed countries, was the origin of the surrounding countries’ misery. Finally, it must be recalled that Latin America’s external debt was one of the most significant obstacles to the region’s economic development. Dependency theory was articulated in Latin America during the 1960s, but its impact transcended the region, due to the fact that other geographic regions, in particular Africa, were experiencing similar socioeconomic and political turmoil. Latin America was also subject to extraordinarily active socio-political movements: guerrillas in four cardinal geographical points, and peasant, worker and student uprisings. The Cuban Revolution ultimately changed the balance of power in the area, and the United States wanted to prevent these events at any cost. Development was the justification for every governmental action, and churches also sought to understand the causes of conflict. A new theology was introduced: a theology of development that would later become a theology of liberation. This theology incorporated certain central aspects of the dependency theory. As the coup against Joao Goulart in Brazil was unfolding, the dictatorships for ‘national security’ were being formed. On the one hand, the euphoria of developmentexisted – this euphoria would come to be known as ‘developmentalism’; on the other hand, the very foundation of this development was repression. The so-called ‘Brazilian miracle’ occurred under the auspices of a military dictatorship. As a result, the first generation of national dictatorship theorists were forced to take exile in nearby countries, mainly Chile, Mexico and France. The new approaches of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) were both in the approach of development and the seed that would later become dependency theory. Celso Furtado, a well-known Brazilian economist, would lead some ECLAC seminars in the headquarters, Santiago de Chile. Another Brazilian, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, also participated as a sociologist. He would later be part of the generation that created the theory, and years later, he became the president of Brazil. His economic policy was not related to his academic background, however. In fact during his government, neo-liberal policies were implemented in the face of a severe economic crisis. Cardoso also vigorously criticized the Marxist approach of Theotonio Dos Santos. Furtado would later have the professorship in his specialty, in the IEDES, (Institut d’Etudes sur le Developpement) in the University of Paris II, which lured many Latin Americans to study in France. It is interesting to note that in the countries where they lived in exile, these scholars continued to disseminate their work in journals, books, seminars and through professorships. In Mexico, for example, certain publishers and specialized journals such as Siglo XXI Editores, the Trimestre Economico, the Editorial Era, and the Revista del Comercio Exterior spread the findings of Furtado, Cardoso, Dos Santos, Marini and Sunkel.