Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 1983"

The Political Economy of Underdevelopment

Abstract: 1. Economic Underdevelopment: a Politico-Historical Perspective Part I: Investment Patterns in the Settler and Non-Settler Situations 2. Economic Underdevelopment and the Settler/ Nonsettle Dichotomy 3. Export Staples and their Contrasting Impact on Development - the Settler and the Nonsettler Regions 4. Economic Development in the Settler and the Nonsettler Colonies: Differences in Scope and Orientation 5. Settler Autonomy as a Basis of Growth Impulses 6. Settler Growth and the Repression of Indigenous Interests Part II: The Plantation System and Underdevelopment 7. Plantations and their Metropolitan Orientation 8. Problems of Labour Supply and the recourse to Migrant Labour: I. Labour Shortages and Non-availability of Indigenous Labour 9. Problems of Labour Supply and the recourse to Migrant Labour: II. The Response of the Indigenous Labour to the Plantation System 10. The Scale of Plantation Operations and Productive Efficiency - A Distorted Image 11. Plantations and Technological Stagnation 12. Labour Relations in Plantations Part III: Towards a Theory of Underdevelopment 13. The Framework and Mechanisms of Metropolitan Control 14. The Domination of Plantation Interests by Merchant Capital: Agency House-Plantation Relations 15. Merchant Capitalism and Underdevelopment 16. Plantations, Economic Dualism and the Colonial Mode of Production 17. The Political Economy of Underdevelopment

Technology and Regional Development: A Survey

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on the role of technology and technological change in regional development. Three specific themes are identified. First, traditional approaches to technology include those found in models of regional growth, in analyses of innovation diffusion, and in economic analysis of technological change. Second, recent research on regional development has involved technology from two perspectives—that of regional economic structure and that of innovation in the strategies and management of large corporations. Third, the underdevelopment of Third World countries has been attributed in part to technological dependence. The possibilities are abundant for research that would add to current understanding of regional development in an age of rapid technological change.

The Settler Economies: Studies in the Economic History of Kenya and Southern Rhodesia 1900-1963

Abstract: The economic history of developing countries, particularly the former colonies, has become polarized between two ideologies. The apologists for colonialism have emphasized the stimulus given to the indigenous economy by the introduction of foreign capital; the 'underdevelopment theorists' have turned this interpretation on its head and represented the relationship as being, particularly in 'settler colonies' such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, one not of stimulus but of rape and plunder. In this study, Dr Mosley considers the economies of colonial Kenya and Southern Rhodesia and argues, in the light of recently assembled statistical data, that the truth is more complex than either of these simple interpretations allows. At the level of policy, most white producers acknowledged that they could not afford to let 'white mate black in a very few moves': they needed his cheap labour, cattle and maize too much to wish to damage seriously the peasant economy that sustained them.

The political economy of productivity : Thai agricultural development, 1880-1975

Abstract: The economic history of Thailand between 1880 and 1975 contrasts sharply with the development experiences of other Third World countries. Between the opening of trade in 1850 and 1941, when war halted economic activity, Thailand became a major exporter of rice in the world market. Although conditions for further growth seemed highly favourable, Thailand's rapid integration into the world economy failed to improve living standards, and rice yields actually declined. In examining the causes of the underdevelopment of Thai agriculture over the last 100 years, Feeny introduces supply and demand models of technical and institutional change to analyse why the rice export boom did not result in more development.This book, much of which is based on primary research in the Thai National Archives, is one of the few quantitative economic histories of a less developed country.

Remittances and Rural Underdevelopment in the English-Speaking Caribbean

Abstract: As a concomitant of migration in many underdeveloped countries, remittances are said to have such positive effects as reducing balance of payments deficits, accelerating capital formation, financing technical improvements in peasant farming, and increasing rural incomes. This paper examines whether any of these benefits are felt in the rural portions of the English-speaking Caribbean through a survey of (1) the determinants of remittances; (2) the amount of funds repatriated; (3) the disbursement of the cash inputs; and (4) the developmental effects of the monies received. It is found that despite the large sums remitted and their importance for individual well-being and social mobility, there is no positive contribution to rural economic rejuvenation. This outcome is examined by referring to the historical-structural context within which migration to and from the region developed. The conclusion is that remittances and the larger labor export phenomena of which they are a part must be viewed as a product...

British Rubber Companies in East Africa Before the First World War

Abstract: Until the Second World War, at least, tropical Africa constituted harsh and difficult terrain for Western capitalism — a region where financial loss, erosion of the capital base and ignominious failure were as likely for the expatriate or metropolitan firm as profitability or growth of turnover. This simple fact has been obscured in recent years both by the practice of business history which, in Africa as elsewhere, tends to concentrate upon the relative handful of enterprises which prospered and survived, and by dependency/underdevelopment theory which stresses Western capital's penetration into, and its re-ordering of, non-capitalist societies. That many European firms failed to make an effective entry, however, deserves to be reiterated, and the reasons for lack of success need closer investigation if acceptable conclusions are to be drawn about the character and consequences of European business activity in Africa. Such are the aims of the present article, which evaluates the brief history of twenty-two British companies set up to engage in rubber production in East Africa shortly before the First World War. It seeks to answer two questions — how is their presence to be explained and, more importantly, what factors frustrated their ambitions ? — and hopes to illustrate comparative international aspects of British corporate activity and investment. The failure of British rubber-planting initiatives in East Africa, it will be argued, was the obverse, and indeed a direct consequence, of successful British rubbercultivation in South and South-East Asia.

Technical Assistance Alternatives for Rural Development: Beyond the Bypass Model

Abstract: Development programs are often influenced by two myths about how development occurs. The first myth, the “technical fix,” posits underdevelopment as a technical problem to be solved by experts with blueprints. The second myth, the “noble peasant,” sees underdevelopment as a social problem to be solved by villagers unhindered by technicians or bureaucrats. Both myths have encouraged the use of strategies which bypass local institutions, employ technical assistance personnel in the role of “performers,” and fail to build appropriate local capacities to initiate and sustain development activities. Moreover, the project development procedures of donor agencies treat design and capacity building as separate functions and thus exacerbate the situation and render much technical assistance ineffective. This paper explores alternative ways of using technical assistance as resource “mobilizers,” promoting flexible “process” designs which avoid the blueprint trap, modifying donor project development procedu...

The Political Economy of Development: A Theoretical Reconsideration of Some Unresolved Issues

Abstract: The past three decades have witnessed far-reaching changes and a revolution of sorts both in the Third World countries and in the theoretical frameworks employed in the study of development and underdevelopment. The methodological achievements which have accompanied these theoretical innovations have in many respects approximated the kind of scientific transformations in the natural sciences that Kuhn (1970) describes as the structure of scientific revolutions. Discussing the history of scientific discovery Kuhn (1970: 52-65) draws attention to the distinction between normal science and scientific revolutions. He specifically emphasizes the critical importance of the discovery of anomalous data and how the “awareness of [such an] anomaly, the gradual and simultaneous emergence of both observational and conceptual recognition” of the inadequacies of the currently dominant paradigm in dealing with the existing problems, prepare the ground for its overthrow or suppression. Until the late 1960s problems of development in the Third World were characteristically examined from the perspective of the dominant paradigm: the modernization theory. Classical modernization theory placed central consideration on the internal conditions of the state: institutional structures, culture, attitudes, and value systems. In the early 1970s, the crises and contradictions which surrounded modernization theory reached an alarming proportion and created the “necessary precondition for the emergence of novel theories” (Kuhn, 1970: 77). Aside from the increasing frustration and general dissatisfaction of underdeveloped countries with “growth without development” (Clower et al., 1966), it was clear that the existing international economic system had failed to spread the benefits of world economic prosperity between the developed and underdeveloped countries.

The Smoke Screen, Rhetorics and Reality of Penal Incarceration in Nigeria

Abstract: Nigeria is a developing country and so are its institutions. Certain areas of organizational goals in Nigeria present peculiar problems. Ideas tend to diffuse rapidly among bureaucrats in Nigeria and are formulated into policies. These ideas, however, incorporated into policies, often never get beyond the official files. Such a situation is due to a variety of reasons: problems of underdevelopment in terms of human and financial resources; lack of interest and sense of priorities; desire to preserve and perpetuate privileged power positions and attendant property accumulation; the desire to do nothing beyond “paper prescriptions” about problems that confront the lower socio-economic members of the society. The Nigerian prisons system and its penal policy provide an illustration of just these problems. The penal policy of reformation-rehabilitation in Nigeria is no more than a public disguise for “modernizing” while in practice nothing has changed from the inherited penal system that was geared towards the...

The Limits of Industrialization in the Less Developed World: Bolivia

Abstract: This article examines structural conditions impeding industrialization in underdeveloped countries. Bolivia provides an especially valuable case for study because it is one of the few countries that experienced a revolution in which a new political group committed to diversifying and expanding the economy was ushered into power. The first section of this paper discusses alternative theses of industrial underdevelopment. Subsequent sections assess the extent to which each thesis helps explain industrial patterns in Bolivia since 1952. 70 references, 4 tables.

In Search of Dynamism: Foreign Investment in the Philippines Under Martial Law

Abstract: F OREIGN PARTICIPATION in the Philippine economy has been a controversial issue throughout much of the nation's history. Constitutional provisions, laws, and administrative actions have provided the basis for excluding, or at least restricting, the participation of non-Filipinos in a wide spectrum of economic activity. Exploitation of natural resources, operation of public utilities, retail commerce, import trade, and banking and credit were, by the late 1960s, almost entirely Filipinized. Manufacturing, however, and some traditional export industries, are conspicuous for being exceptions to this trend. Although Filipinos may have been given certain preference over foreigners, investment in industries by non-Filipinos-largely transnational corporations (TNCs)-has been actively encouraged by successive Philippine governments since independence. Current Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his advisors have been consistent in their efforts to attract TNCs. Not all Filipinos, however, have agreed with the government's approach. In the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s, small, but articulate and growing, groups pointed to the openness of the Philippine economy as a reason for, rather than a solution to, the existing state of underdevelopment. Economic nationalism was being espoused in the Constitutional Convention and written into law by Supreme Court decisions. Dissatisfaction with the nation's economic performance and the perceived dominance of foreign (mostly American) enterprises were major factors behind those sentiments; the existing political and social structures, it was argued, were no longer responsive to the needs and aspirations of the Philippine people. The declaration of martial law in September 1972 brought this debate to an abrupt halt. President Marcos made it clear early on that he was in the process of creating a "New Society." Yet, the economic policies he pursued were largely the policies of the "Old Society." This is particularly true in the area of foreign investment. The difference was that under the new regime-constitutional authoritarianism-there was no opposition, no debate. According to the director of the National

The brazilian model of accumulation: its origins, structure, and crisis

Abstract: When in 1964 the political crisis of Brazilian democracy was "solved" in capitalist fashion by a brutal military coup, this military dictatorship seemed to the international left a last, desperate resort of the international bourgeoisie in its struggle against the general upsurge of the anticapitalist popular movement. The military dictatorship seemed to have little chance of political and economic success in view of the deep and universal crisis of Latin American society. Peasant movements, guerrillas, workers' strikes all aroused hopes on the left the world over and fears on the part of the bourgeoisie that the Latin American continent would become a "powder keg" igniting a chain of social revolutions. The only alternative to these revolutions seemed to be fascist military dictatorships lacking any capacity for economic development. The Cuban Revolution seemed to be an expression of the general direction of development of the continent, and the Brazilian military dictatorship only a desperate reaction of the rulers of a stagnating, dependent capitalism, a bourgeoisie placed on the defensive. Political developments since that time are well known: after hopeful beginnings of socialist or reform-capitalist developments in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, repressive military regimes have become the rule in the most of Latin America. The Brazilian military dictatorship became the model case of dynamic capitalist accumulation accomplished concurrently with increasing integration into the world market. While the representatives of international capital have celebrated the Brazilian "economic miracle" as a model for the successful capitalist conquest of underdevelopment, the left has responded to events in Brazil with moral outrage over terror, torture, and mass impoverishment. It has been incapable, however, of comprehending the dynamics of dependent capitalist accumulation except in terms of imperialist conspiracy and social collapse. Brazilian development has been viewed as a special case in which a "subimperialist bridgehead" of U.S. multinational corporations succeeded in temporarily * Thomas Hurtienne is a sociologist at the Freie Universitat Berlin. This article is an abridged translation of his "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte, Struktur und Krise des Brasilianischen Akkumulationsmodells," which appeared in Lateinamerika: Analysen und Berichte, (Berlin) 11 (1978), 70-96. Jon Sperber is a historian at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City. 108

Aspects of labour market behaviour in an oil economy: a study of underdevelopment and immigrant labour in Kuwait

Abstract: T h i s i s a s t u d y o f l a b o u r m i g r a t i o n i n K u w a i t and ba^ed p r i m a r i l y on f i e l d w o r X c a r r i e d o u t i n K u w a i t . The c e n t r a l argument s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e s o c i 3 e c o n o m i c p o s i t i o n o f i m m i g r a n t l a b o u r has t o be examined w i t h i n t h e c o n t e x t o f K u w a i t ' s t T a i l s f o r a t i o n from a producer of s u r p l u s , i n t h e p e r i o d c f p r e o i l s o c i e t y t o a consumer o f c a p i t a l and consumer goods based on t h e use o f o i l revenues. However, such a t r a n s f o r m a t i o n c o u l d n o t have t a k e n p l a c e w i t h o u t Kuwait's s t r u c t u r e d i n t e g r a t i o n i n t o t h e g l o b a l , economy. As a r e s u l t K u w a i t became one o f t h e raa]or markets f o r t h e consumption o f c a p i t a l i s t consumer goodsThe approach i s t o examine K u w a i t ' s ural e r d e v e r l o p r a e n t and dependency t h r o u g h t h e s t u d y o f i n t e r n a t i o n a l m i g r a t i o n i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t , u s i n q K u w a i t i t s e l f -as an example. The t h e s i s arques t h a t l a b o u r i r . i q r a t i o n t o Kuwait .md X-> o t h e r Arab j u l f c o u n t r i e s i s n o t gcner.itntf hy n f i y r p l u y o f c i p l M l .u-.-) .f . v ' t y of human r e s o u r c e s on ur io ^irSe, find 1 j M u c i t y o£ c ^ p l t i l .JJIJ ^ u r p l ' i ^ o f hj!3an r e s o u r c e s on t h e o t h e r . I n s t e a d i t s u g g e s t s t h a t i t i s ,1 consequence o f c h a n g i n g h i s t o r i c a l c o n d i t i o n s i n t h e sccu-Tulacion o f c a p i t a l i n the w e s t e r n c o u n t r i e s . Such changes as have o c c u r r e d f a c i l i t a t e the r e p r o d u c t i o n o f w e s t e r n c a p i t a l i n a more p r o f i t a b l e v?.y -md b r i n g about new ways i n w h i c h the ' T h i r d World" c o u n t r i e s are l u r t h e r i n t e g r a t e d i n t o t h e r e p r o d u c t i o n o f g l o b a l c a p i t a l . T h i s t h e s i s , a l s o a t t e t p s t o show t h a t t h e Planner i n w h i c h K u w a i t and most o f t n c o t h e r G u l f c o u n t r i e s have been i n t e g r a t e d i n t o t h e w o r l d c a p i t a l i s t TMar"^et hsve produced s i m u l t a n e o u s l y c e r t a i n forms o f s o c i o e c o n o i n i c s t m r ^ u r m whi L-h i n f l u e n c e t h e course o f c v e n t c f a r beyond t h e b o u n d a r i e s of On" • •••wi 1i i • • r o n c e r n t d . I j t J i e r waMSj ^ i u r l o p p i ^ n f I n t h ^ -itt I f r>-*;t"" r " cr-tt-t.ri in de t e r ^ i i n Ln ' j changes i n c t f L i j 1 Ar i t f ari 'J T h i r d World ' i ^ ] r ! 1 i , ^ i i r r i / r ^ r i l a b o u r . E m p i r i c a l l y , t h i s t h e s i s shews t h a t problems w h i c h are c o n f r o n t e d by i r o m i g r a n t s are a l s o c o n f r o n t e d , a l b e i t t o a l e s s e r e x t e n t , by the i n d i g e n o u s p o p u l a t i o n . The e x a m i n a t i o n o f such problems c o n c e n t r a t e s on n c j s i n a , e d u c a t i o n , v o c a t i o n a l t r a i n i n g , and v o r t i n g c o n d i t i o n ^ , i t i s a l s o a r q u e d i n t h i s s t u d y , t h a t t h e g o v e r n m e n t s d i s c r i m i n a t o r y p o l i c v w i t h r e g a r d s t o a c r e t h a n h a l f o f K u w a i t ' s p o p u l a t i o n , namely m i g r a n t l a b o u r , i s -n-ed by the regime o r d e r t o ov e r corse t h e problem o f l e g i t i m a c y an

Human Rights and Development in Africa: Dilemmas and Options

Abstract: Human rights are a complex yet fundamental aspea of all human society. At their very basic formulation, they represent each individual's claim to dignity of person and fair treatment. In this paper I propose to explore the observance of human rights in contemporary Africa and the dilemmas associated with these rights. Although traditional African societies enjoyed many of the human rights that are today enshrined in the United Nations Covenants,1 postindependent African states?which are larger in size and wider in scope than the precolonial village and empire?face new challenges with regard to these rights. Most nota ble among these are the concentration of power without adequate countervailing safeguards; the fissiparous tendencies of the many dif ferent ethnic and cultural groups that make up their populations; the personalization of power and its extension into domains created by the modern state and a money economy; underdevelopment, with its limited opportunities, creating a class of migrants and refugees, and a growing population pressing the state for services it is ill-equipped to provide; and the search for viable political and economic institutions. These challenges render the new states extremely fragile, and it is this very fragility that limits the extent to which human rights exist and are enjoyed. Development and political stability in Africa will depend ultimately on finding ways to strengthen these fledgling states and to expand respect for human rights. Although the United Na tions has two separate covenants for civil and political rights, and for economic, social, and cultural rights, the assumption underlying this