Theotonio Dos Santos (1936–2018): The Revolutionary Intellectual Who Pioneered Dependency Theory

Cristóbal Kay

doi:10.1111/dech.12560

Abstract

Theotonio Dos Santos (1936–2018): The Revolutionary Intellectual Who Pioneered Dependency Theory

Highlights

On 11 September 1973 — the day of the military coup in Chile in which the Allende government was overthrown — a decree was issued by the military junta headed by General Pinochet, in which the name of Theotonio Dos Santos was mentioned
In a text published several years later, Dos Santos (1991: 28) clarifies that in the dialectical relations between the dominant and the dependent countries, that is between the external and internal factors, ‘the process of capital accumulation of the dependent countries is conditioned by their insertion in the world economy while at the same time being determined by their own internal laws of development’
Influence of Raul Prebisch’s Centre–Periphery System. What transpires from these definitions is the central idea of an interdependent world system, shadowing Prebisch’s idea of the centre–periphery system (ECLA, 1951; Kay, 2019b) in which a certain international division of labour dictates that the centre countries industrialize and develop through the export of industrial commodities while the periphery countries are largely confined to the production and export of primary commodities based on the exploitation of their natural resources

Summary

INTRODUCTION

On 11 September 1973 — the day of the military coup in Chile in which the Allende government was overthrown — a decree was issued by the military junta headed by General Pinochet, in which the name of Theotonio Dos Santos was mentioned His first name was misspelled as Teotorio, revealing the unfamiliarity with Brazilian names. The decree threatened that ‘if they refused to do so they would have to face the consequences which could be foreseen’.1 This list included the leaders of the various political parties of the Popular Unity coalition which formed the Allende government as well as some key government functionaries. Theotonio Dos Santos managed to find asylum in the Embassy of Panamaunder difficult circumstances (Dos Santos, 1978a: 14) but it took five months before he was able to leave the country and start his second exile in Mexico

For the ‘Military Junta Decree No 10

A Historical Turning Point

CONCLUSION