CEPAL Review - Volume 1989, Issue 39, 1989

Now that we are at the threshold of a new decade, what can be said about the one that is ending with regard to the development process in Latin America and the Caribbean? So much emphasis has been placed on the depth and duration of the economic crisis of recent years that little new can be added, at least in terms of the description of its origin, scope and consequences. Still, the 10-year time span offers us an extraordinarily rich perspective for taking brief stock and making some observations on future perspectives, taking into account the legacy which this decade leaves us, a decade described by some as “lost” as far as development is concerned.

Sweden and its social life are characterized by certain features which are frequently summed up under the term “Swedish model”. This article deals with one of these features: the government system. For a long time now Swedish politics has been characterized by a considerable degree of consensus and stability. A very evident expression of this stability is the fact that the same party has managed to stay in power for the last 60 years, with the exception of a brief six- year period between 1976 and 1982.

The paper presented by Olof Ruin invites comment on very diverse aspects of Swedish and Latin American political development. I would like to concentrate on the question of the initial political conditions which made the transformation of the Swedish economy and society possible. This transformation, which began in the 1920s, is of special interest in that it managed to combine economic development, equity and democracy right from the start, without sacrificing any one of these objectives in favour of the other.

Is there such a thing as a “Swedish model”? The term is used several times in Professor Olof Ruin’s paper, “Political Development in Sweden”. Anyone who talks of a model admits the possibility that proposals based on the historical experience of one country (or countries) may be applicable to the experience of another country (or countries). And anyone who is familiar with the history of Latin American thought and politics knows that, in this sense, the idea of a “model” can prompt interesting —and at times disquieting— reactions in the minds of Latin Americans.

There is an obvious imbalance between the magnitude of women’s contribution to Latin American and Caribbean economies and the scope of actions and policies aimed at women. The same imbalance is seen between women’s contribution and the benefits they receive through their participation in regional development.

This paper analyses the structural characteristics and dynamics of social policies in Brazil. Once the Brazilian model of the Welfare State was consolidated under the authoritarian régime in the 1960s and 1970s, its meritocratic-individualist features became more acute, owing to the socio-economic base of poverty and social exclusion on which it rested. In dynamic terms, this model eventually was reproduced according to some clearly defined principles: extreme political and financial centralization; pronounced institutional fragmentation; lack of user participation in the basic decision-making processes; self-financing of social investment; privatization of the public sphere of resources and decision-making; and the clientelist use of the social apparatus. These principles of reproduction partially explain the system’s current degree of social exclusion, as well as its increasingly social-assistance bias.

During the 30 years after the war Brazilian capitalism performed very favourably in terms of the creation of productive job opportunities and was characterized more by integration of the labour market than by its exclusion. The persistence of the traditional inequality and poverty levels is not due, therefore, to a supposed lack of economic vigour.

The objective of the paper is to provide a better understanding of the CBI Programme and examine its achievements in the light of the objectives and expectations. To put the discussion in perspective, a brief economic and sociopolitical background is given, followed by a statement of the programme’s objectives and a brief description of its main plans; legislation, administrative action and technical assistance. Data on foreign trade, direct investment and development assistance point to the conclusion that most of the indicators have declined. Despite a higher level of official financial aid since the programme started in 1984, the overall achievement has been negligible. Some countries have fared better than others and there are some signs of increasing diversification of exports and better performance of newer exports than of traditionals.

This study makes an appraisal of the impact of technological change on the Latin American commodity sector, especially with regard to demand. It examines the factors underlying the apparently declining raw materials demand in developed countries and threatening to affect demand in developing countries as well. In this context, the process of materials substitution and the relationship between commodity demand and economic development are analysed from the standpoint of use-intensity, and the hypothesis is put forward that the threat posed by a reduction in materials demand in the North via “de-materialization”, economies and substitution could perhaps be mitigated by increasing materials requirements in the South by means of population increase, infrastructure works, consumerism and appropriate government policies. The region still has areas not fully exploited with the existing technologies whose potential could be substantially enlarged by changing or improving the prevailing production structure. This proposition is tested in four strategic areas (increasing the technological content of exports, intensification of local processing, redirection of commodity trade inwards to the region itself and strengthening of marketing and product promotion infrastructures).

This paper analyses the genesis and evolution of the integration agreements between Argentina and Brazil in the analytical context of the various options for integration in the international economy.

The economic crisis that has affected the Latin American countries since the early 1980s and is threatening to expand beyond the present decade has reactivated the debate about trade and development and the role of Latin America in the international division of labour. This paper seeks to contribute to that debate by restating ECLAC’s original centre-periphery theory within the framework of the “unequal exchange” discussions. The paper aims to show that the ECLAC theory, after nearly 40 years, still contains the elements for a more satisfactory interpretation of world trade than other trade theories. After a brief introduction on comparative advantages and trade theory, the paper discusses the main elements of ECLAC’s centre-periphery model. This model is then contrasted with the views of the main contributors to the unequal exchange debate, with the aid of the price and distribution relations of a two-country two-commodity international trade model in which the two nations are replaced by a “centre” and a “periphery”. The last sections incorporate ECLAC’s demand elasticity argument into the discussion and analyse the model’s policy implications for peripheral countries.