Towards a Critique of Towards a Critique of Developmentalist: Developmentalist:

Dependency TheoryDependency Theory

Dependency Theory

1960s-- United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America.Main Authors: Fernando H. Cardoso, Faletto, Theotonio Dos Santos.Main Thesis: Underdevelopment Underdevelopment is not the product of the persistence of “traditional” society; instead, it is generated by the particular fashion the expansion of capitalism assumes in the “periphery.”

Developmentalist approaches are wrong. The expansion of

the market does not necessarily produce either

modernization or development.On the contrary, capitalism makes societies look likelook like “feudal” in the periphery.

Development and underdevelopment

constitute the two sides of the same coin: capitalism.

The periphery is underdeveloped because of

the development of the center.

(Underdeveloped) PeripheryPeriphery

(Developed)CenterCenter

Flows of Wealth

The play between Center and Periphery reproduces in all scales

(fractal structure)

Center PeripheryCenter-Periphery Center-Periphery

Center-Periphery-Center-Periphery Center-Periphery Center-Periphery

Unequal and Combined Development:

ElitesElites

Center (Ex: England, the U.S.)

DEPENDENTDEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENTThe State and the Nation split apart (capitalist) (popular)

Sovereign StatesSovereign States

Non-Non-sovereign sovereign StatesStates

CENTERCENTER PERIPHERYPERIPHERY

WORLD MARKET

SOCIAL EXCLUSION (POVERTY)

Modernization, Industrialization, Urbanization, to Development do not lead in the periphery. Instead, they foster Underdevelopment, a “caricature” of the central societies.

Against Rostow, Huntington, Moore, and... Against Rostow, Huntington, Moore, and... Marx, Cardoso and Faletto argue that...Marx, Cardoso and Faletto argue that...

In the periphery, the development of capitalism leads

to...

• Dependent and unequal development (distorted, uneven, and pathological form of modernization).

• Increasing dependency.

Politically...• (economic and social

integration fosters)Democracies, extended

citizenship, and the rule of law, which PREVAIL in the Center

Free market + DemocracyFree market + Democracy

• (economic and social exclusion fosters)

Dictatorships (or Formal Democracies), State violence, limited citizenship, and the (un)rule of law, which PREVAIL in the Periphery.

Alliance: the State + CorporationsFree market + RepressionFree market + Repression

Cardoso & Faletto:

• “The same fundamental alliance which constitutes a dependent industrial capitalist state may organize itself institutionally within a context of authoritarianism, restricted democracy, or totalitarianism.”

SOLUTION: BREAK UP THE BONDS OF DEPENDENCY

SinceDependency = Capitalism,

Breaking with dependency= SocialismBreaking with dependency= Socialism

Cardoso & Faletto identify three main strategies to break the

dependency bonds (target: the State)

1. Guerrilla movements organized against military dictatorships (ex: Argentina 1969-1975)

2. The Democratic Path: Salvador Allende’s government (1970-1973)

3. Military Reformism (ex: Perú)Importance of politics.Importance of politics.

C & F: “the political struggle revolving around the state

shows what is essential in this form of dependency: the style the style

of development of the of development of the possibility of alternatives possibility of alternatives

depends upon the resolution of depends upon the resolution of this question of this question of the statethe state.”

South East Asia...

• The explosive economic growth in South East Asia at the beginning of the 1980s was considered by most scholars the demise of the dependency theory.– Argument: dependency theory cannot

explain such a process of growth.

Wallerstein – The World-System

• The concepts and units of analysis chosen by most scholars do not allow us to understand the real organization of the world.

• Problem:Problem: developmentalism consecrates the nation statethe nation state as the main unit of analysisunit of analysis..

From a holistic perspective...

• The notion of “mode of production” appears as central.– (def.) “the way in which decisions are

made about dividing up productive tasks, about quantities of goods to be produced and labour-time to be invested, about quantitites of goods to be consumed or accumulated, about the distribution of the goods produced.” (345)

Modes of Production

• “Reciprocal-lineage.”

• “World-systems”– “World-Empire”– -“World-Economy”

“Reciprocal-lineage.”• Limited and elementary specialization

of tasks and forms of exchange. Based on human labor. Limited growth. Mini-systems, short-lived (6 generations).

“World-systems”1: “World-Empire.”

– Based upon agriculture. Surplus allows to maintain artisans and an “administrative” class. Extra-economic foundation (tribute, force, the power of the sword). Technological advance is not desirable per se. Everthing is “fixed” in the system. Political unity of the economy

• Interest of the powerful on the survival of the subjected sectors.

“World-systems”2: “World-Economy.”

Single division of labor within a system which “has no overarching political structure.”

World-market, multiplicity of nation-states. Capitalism. No limits to profit. Starvation may be necessary for profit. Appearance of “the poor.”

Markets became dominant in the “World-Economy”

• System economically unified and politically fragmented

(World-market + Nation-States).• Different nation-states cushion and

reinforce the effects of the market.• Importance of the role of the State...

Critical and “dependencista” approaches lead towards...

• An increasing focus on the role of the State.

• Lane: “Bringing the State Back In.”