CEPAL Review - Volume 1981, Issue 13, 1981

This article examines some of the recent changes in the industrial structure at the international level. First, it attempts to determine the actual extent of relocation in order to establish whether this is an almost unfulfilled possibility or rather a process in full implementation. It goes on to describe various kinds of industrialization in developing countries and then raises the problem of the ‘industrial redeployment’ of the developed countries, considering the contradiction that exists between the current problem of unemployment and the probable labour shortage which could occur between 1985 and the year 2000, one solution to which could be industrial relocation (others would be an increase in productivity or an influx of foreign workers). The authors also consider the comparative advantages which may induce transnational corporations to establish themselves in developing countries, and they analyse in greater detail the question of wage differences as weighted by productivity. Finally, policy alternatives are proposed for developing countries, comparing the characteristics and effects of ‘open’ industrialization based on comparative advantages —which would fit in with the industrial ‘redeployment’ of the developed countries— with the characteristics and effects of a form of industrialization which tends to affirm national autonomy (as for example in the production of capital goods) and to supply the majority of the population.

The purpose of this essay is to contribute to the discussion of Latin American industrialization from the standpoint of manufacturing prospects and the long-term options which can be glimpsed within the framework of economic and social development objectives.

The eradication of poverty has always been one of the main objectives of social reformers, and sometimes this moral concern has made it also the object of empirical investigation by social scientists. This convergence has again occurred in recent years, and has resulted in a flourishing literature both within and outside Latin America. In the first part of his article, the author reviews the most important elements of that literature, laying special emphasis on the writings of the advocates of ‘another development’, ‘redistribution with growth’ and ‘the satisfaction of basis needs’.

A large proportion of the Latin American countries have sought and are still seeking to incorporate into their development plans and the design of their economic policies elements whereby they seek to correct or minimize some of the most obvious internal disparities in growth rate, well-being and modernization between the various areas or regions which make up the nation.

The author sees this article as a critical contribution to the work being carried out by the Caribbean Development and Co-operation Committee (CDCC) with a view to formulating a strategy for this subregion (see the summary of this strategy in the section “Some CEPAL publications” at the end of this volume).

In a series of articles, appearing above all in this Review, the author has gradually been giving form to his mature view of the economic, social and political structure and transformations of Latin America. In this process of further perfecting his ideas by giving them greater depth and coherence, the present article represents a major step, being a concise summary of the main lines of thought which he is developing in three closely interrelated spheres.

I have already twice commented on some aspects of Raul Prebisch’s latest work: I shall now attempt a more comprehensive critique. This is certainly no easy task, even though I shall deal only with the interpretative aspects of his arguments in the articles published in the CEPAL Review, Nos. 1 and 6, and not with his ‘theory of change’, which, while most thoughtprovoking, may be considered incomplete in more senses than one, as the ideas in it are still being worked out.