Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 1980"

Nepal in Crisis: Growth and Stagnation at the Periphery

Abstract: Based on original materials collected by the authors during several years of fieldwork, this book makes an important contribution to the analysis of the political economy of Nepal and to the study of underdevelopment in general

Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment.

Abstract: Joan Robinson shows how the economic mechanisms that produce wealth in the midst of growing misery can be understood. For this purpose she uses the classical theory of accumulation and the modern theory of international trade and finance. Her simple but penetrating analysis illuminates the problems of poverty, accumulation, industrialization and trade, while exposing misleading conceptions of the Third World. Throughout the book, general principles are demonstrated with particular examples, making those principles both clearer and more relevant. The book's conclusion is that the economic problems of the Third World remain rooted in deep-seated political conflicts of national and international interests.

Capitalist Accumulation in the Periphery: The Kenyan Case Re-Examined

Abstract: Colin Leys, author of one of the most interesting books on underdevelopment in recent years, has caused considerable surprise by his 1978 article reassessing his pioneering study. The particular point of contention is the characterization of the indigenous industrial bourgeoisie. In the earlier study Leys argued that the indigenous bourgeoisie - which he termed an 'auxiliary bourgeoisie' - was largely defined by its relationship to foreign capital and that it saw its future in alliance with that of foreign capital. Langdon supported this, characterizing the 'insider bourgeoisie' as bargaining with foreign capital for a greater proportion of the surplus generated by foreign capital to be distributed to the Kenyan elite. But he, too, saw the interests between the indigenous bourgeoisie and foreign capital as being basically harmonious, rather than antagonistic.

Industrial dependence and technological underdevelopment: Canadian consequences of foreign direct investment

Abstract: Britton J. N. H. (1980) Industrial dependence and technological underdevelopment: Canadian consequences of foreign direct investment, Reg. Studies 14, 181–199. Canada's trade failures in secondary and especially in high-technology manufactures over recent decades derive from a lack of high-technology specialisations in the industrial structure. This sympton of underdevelopment has its origins in the direct and indirect effects of foreign control of over half Canada's secondary manufacturing. Innovation and product-development functions have failed to expand in Canada and the centralization of technical, scientific and managerial jobs in the home economies of the multinationals truncates the Canadian industrial system. A new technological strategy is required to combat the combined impact of high costs, low productivity, and insignificant and general technological weakness. The major elements of such a strategy are identified.

The Economics of Pharmaceutical Supply in Tanzania

Abstract: This paper analyzes the patterns of purchasing, distribution, and utilization of pharmaceuticals currently found in Tanzania, an underdeveloped country in Africa. Like other nations in the Third World, Tanzania offers the prospect of a rapidly expanding market for the multinational pharmaceutical industry. However, this market has been to a large extent developed by the intense promotional activities of the drug companies themselves. In addition to normal marketing methods, these companies indulge in techniques which would be neither acceptable nor legal in developed countries. As a result, expensive proprietary drugs are overpurchased and overprescribed, mainly in the large urban hospitals, with consequent deprivation of other health care facilities, particularly those for the rural peasants who form the majority of the population. The activities of the multinational pharmaceutical companies in the Third World are therefore an important component in the continuing underdevelopment of health in these nations.

Imperialism and capitalist transformation: critique of a Kenyan debate

Abstract: The question of whether or not a dependency model is applicable to Kenya has been subject to considerable recent debate. Beckman offers a critique of the overall terms in which the debate has been cast. He argues that the critics of underdevelopment theory have failed to transcend its problematic and its misdirected identification of contradictions. They have in consequence placed unjustified emphasis on the state as a instrument of ‘factional’ interests. Defenders of the dependency position have for their part been unable to place their analysis within the framework of the logic of capital accumulation, imperialism and class formation. But for Beckman, it is only in terms of the general requirements of capital accumulation that the relation of the state to underlying class forces can be adequately understood.

Theories of Underdevelopment and the American Indian

Abstract: This article examines the applicability of the theories of colonialism and dependency to the present underdeveloped situation of American Indians. In the first section, the theoretical and empirical literature is reviewed. The second section applies the general theory to various US minorities, including American Indians. After discussing the shortcomings of this theoretical framework, the article demonstrates how deficiencies found in the colonial analysis of Indian underdevelopment can be corrected by using the supporting theoretical construct of dependency. Among other things, it suggests that dependency analysis of Native Americans, on the basis of previous research, appears, to offer a potentially unified and coherent explanation for the Indian's continued underdevelopment.

Modernization, under development, uneven development: Prospects for a theory of third world formations

Abstract: Taken as a whole, the two books considered in this review article ‐ David Lehmann, ed., Development Theory: Four Critical Studies, Frank Cass: 1979, £9.50, £4.95 (paperback) and John G. Taylor, From Modernisation to Modes of Production: A Critique of the Sociologies of Development and Underdevelopment, Macmillan: 1979, £12.00, £4.95 (paperback) ‐ give a concise but comprehensive picture of the complex debates and the various theoretical impasses of today's ‘Third World’ studies. The four essays edited by David Lehmann are a critical review of both the old orthodoxies (development economics and modernisation theories) and the newer ones (neo‐Marxist theory of underdevelopment); whereas John Taylor's work is an ambitious attempt to go beyond the neo‐Marxist paradigm by laying the foundations of a mode‐of‐production approach to the study of third‐world formations. Since I believe that the most lively and interesting debates in this field today focus on the various shortcomings of the neo‐Marxist approach, an...

African capitalism in contemporary South Africa

Abstract: The underdevelopment of an indigenous African bourgeoisie undoubtedly constitutes one of the primary defining characteristics of South African political economy. Indeed, it is ironic that in South Africa, where capitalism has developed the forces of production to a level higher than anywhere else on the continent, the African petty-bourgeoisie has remained relatively more backward than in the large majority of African territories which, in contrast, though subjected in the past to colonial rapacity in the form of expropriation of locally generated surpluses and the export of raw materials to western metropoles, nonetheless experienced the emergence of a significant petty bourgeoisie within the confines of colonial economy, this class in most cases heading their nationalist drive to independence. But in South Africa, even more than was the case of other territories dominated by settler colonialism, the formation of an African middle class has been blocked by racial barriers deliberately erected to protect the interests of the locally ruling white bourgeoisie. Historically, therefore, all possibility of the African middle class developing into a fully fledged bourgeoisie has been prevented by state imposed limitations specifically designed to inhibit, if not to totally suppress, its ability to accumulate capital. As a result, concludes Good, "No significant African bourgeoisie stands in a position of potential domination over the working classes"; 1 and the African middle class, such as it is, is primarily made up of non-property owning, non-productive and non-employing elements, the main exception being small scale businessmen, who are in any case largely located within the service sector as traders, transport owners and independent artisans, and whose potential for expansion is hedged around by a maze of restrictive laws. The "national bourgeoisie", declares Martin Legassick, "is a tiny force."2 Thus in its survey of African employment, the 1970 census

The Political economy of underdevelopment : dependence in Senegal

Abstract: The Political Economy of Underdevelopment considers the aspects of the world economic system which limit the possibility for autonomous development by a country such as Senegal. Its relationship with France and the rest of the world, and the relationships of classes within the country are considered in the light of recent developments and history. A bibliography of key texts is also provided. '...this book will stand as a seminal work in the study of the political economy of underdevelopment in Africa.' -- Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Vol 2 No 1, 1982

Armaments, Underdevelopment and Demilitarisation in Africa

Abstract: The process of militarization in Africa includes not only the actual acquisition of weapons, but also the extension of military values into political and social structures. This has contributed to ...

The underdevelopment of evaluative research on health services for the elderly in the United States.

Abstract: This paper describes and analyzes the evolution of current issues in program development and planning for health services for the elderly in the United States. Technical issues and administrative problems in the design and conduct of evaluative research in geriatric care are then reviewed. The paper concludes with the identification of areas for needed evaluative research that can be appropriately pursued cross-nationally.

Education for Development or Underdevelopment?: Guyana's Educational System and its Implications for the Third World

Abstract: Historical Introduction to Guyanese Society Post-1945 Developments in Guyana Primary Education Teacher Education Secondary Education Post-Secondary and Technical Education Expenditure on Education Conclusion Bibliography.

The Development of Underdevelopment in China: An Afterword

Abstract: When I submitted my article on "The Development of Underdevelopment in China" to Modern China, I welcomed its use as the basis for a symposium, for I believed the historical and theoretical issues involved to be of such importance and complexity that only the clash of contending perspectives could serve to reveal them fully. For the most part, I believe that the symposium which resulted (Modern China, Vol. 4 No. 3, July 1978) served this purpose well. It seems to me, however, that a number of important ambiguities remain to be cleared up, and it is to pursue this purpose that I would like to present this research note. In "The Development of Underdevelopment in China," I argued that underdevelopment in nineteenthand twentiethcentury China could not simply have meant "not yet developed," because historically, in the Song period (960-1279) for example, China was incontestably the most advanced civilization in the world. Thus, modern underdevelopment could have emerged only as the result of a historical process, the development of underdevelopment. After an admittedly cursory look at some of the important changes between the Song and modern periods,

Animation Rurale and rural development: the experience of Senegal.

Abstract: Surveys the history of Animation Rurale (IRAM) and rural development in Senegal West Africa. The Sahelian and Maritime Senegal had a Colonial legacy of peanuts underdevelopment and dependency. The peanut economy affected the colonial class and caste structures by creating both farmers and traders transporters and middlemen. The elitist Senegalese political system of regions cercles and arrondissements was the administrative context for rural development. The Animation Rurale Service the Cooperative Service and the Rural Expansion Centers were within the domain of these various political levels and were established respectively to stimulate rural participation in rural development projects and provide technical assistance and other services. Much of the ideology and methods of Animation Rurale are derived from the 2 French Catholics Emmanuel Mounier and Father L.J. Lebret. The 4 major periods in the history of Animation Rurale: 1959-1962; 1963-67; 1968-1973; and 1974 to the present are defined according to the national leadership of Senegal. The greatest impact of this movement was in the 1st period. National goals included political and economic unity modernization of the rural economy and socialization of the countryside. The purpose of these goals was to reduce economic and nutritional dependency and increase industrialization and development of Senegalese resources. Although Animation Rurale had a relationship with other cooperative services financial and agricultural it was hindered by the malaise paysanne (peasant unrest) and the political crisis of 1968-69. Poor crops and growing indebtedness were the main reasons for this unrest. Animation Rurale met its greatest resistance in the region of Diourbel where the Mouride brotherhood constituted a "state within a state." However Maisons Familiales a similar utopian socialist ideology and strategy eventually replaced Animation Rurale and seems to serve more fully the needs of the state.

Environment and Alternative Development

Abstract: This paper stresses the global dimension of the present-day human predicament, marked by the inequity of simultaneous material abundance and overdevelopment in some regions or sections and underdevelopment, increasing poverty and deprivation in some others. It seeks to examine the dynamics of a global structure that forces a continual flow of resources away from non-industrialized into industrialized countries, and from a steady and sustainable to an accelerating and rapacious use of resources in the service of a parasitic and wasteful life-style that is now spreading to the developing countries as well. The science-and-technology that sets this process in motion and sustains it, by making an incessant demand on fast-depleting natural resources, leads not only to the domination of man by machine but also to an increasing redundancy of man himself, besides blighting the life chances of future generations. Furthermore, this science-and-technology posits development and environment in an adversary relationsh...