Markets and the State in the evolution of the ‘Prebisch manifesto’

When Raúl Prebisch died in 1986 his ideas were out of fashion in Ronald Reagan’s Washington and Latin American capitals, dismissed by most Western economists as passé -or even dangerously misguided in the new crusade for globalization. Only United Nations circles and a narrowing band of supporters insisted on his permanent contribution. It was as if his life had merely reflected the turbulence of the “short, violent century” (as Hobsbawn termed it); now that it was over, with the Cold War consigned to history, so too (it appeared) was Prebisch’s legacy.