Reduced Inequalities
Social security and development in Latin America
This article is a summary of a longer study by the author which was commissioned by ECLAC, on the financial situation of social security in 20 Latin American countries. These countries are grouped according to their social security situation, and their similarities, differences and trends with respect to financing and financial equilibrium are examined Of the wide variety of topics covered in such a vast area of study the author focuses on the historical evolution of social security, problems of coverage, benefits, financing and costs and the impact of social security on development.
Working-class youth and anomy
The authors set themselves the difficult task of presenting some ideas to facilitate an understanding of the immense variety of typical forms of youth behaviour in Latin America in recent decades. Their first approach is to indicate two historical points characterized by a prevalence of different social models —comprehensive modernization and technocratic growth— within which different kinds of youth behaviour manifest themselves.
Chile: Effects of the adjustment policies on the agriculture and forestry sector
In this article the author analyses the situation of Chile’s agriculture and economy in tw o periods. In the first, from the end of 1973 to June 1981, the economy grew at a high rate, in flation fell, wages rose, fiscal surpluses were achieved and reserves builtup. In contrast, unemployment grew sharply, investment and saving fell, income distribution deteriorated, and the private sector’s debt reached very high levels. The balance-of-payments deficit, the worsening of the terms of trade, the higher interest rates and the very large foreign debt acted as detonators of a crisis which stamped its mark on the second period. This period, from 1981 on, is characterized by the introduction of various adjustment measures designed to correct the imbalances w ithout altering the essential nature of the adopted model.
Colombia: Effects of the adjustment policy on agricultural development
Agriculture was the most im portant activity in the Colombian economy in the 1970s. It contributed 25% o f the total gross domestic product, absorbed 32% of the labour force and generated about 75% of total exports. In the middle of the decade the country experienced an unexpected boom in coffee and certain illegal products which, in conjunction w ith a stronger influx of external resources, strengthened the position of international reserves. However, at the end of the decade the w orld recession, the fall in international export prices and the accumulated exchange rate slippage were sapping the economy’s strength — a situation accentuated by the persistence o f structural rigidities.
External debt in Central America
The countries of Central America did not manage to escape the effects of the crisis of the 1980s, despite having pursued a relatively conservative external financing policy. Although their external debt was mainly public or backed by the government, the increase in interest rates and deterioration in the terms of trade created considerable external imbalances which forced them to apply stringent adjustment policies. Economic activity weakened and the countries had to choose between finding new sources of financing or transferring the whole impact of the crisis to the domestic economy.
The process of accumulation and the weakness of the protagonists
During the three decades leading up to the present crisis the growth of the product, employment and the level of investment in Latin America reached a very high rate, but the process of accumulation had two important defects, if compared to the United States in the period 1870-1910. First, its greater dependence on the exterior, both on direct foreign investment and on external financing and, second, the lesser relative importance of local private investment in comparison with State investment. Both these features illustrate the relative weakness of local private business in the process of capital accumulation.
Beyond indicative planning
The belief held by some schools of thought that planning and the preservation of democratic freedoms are antagonistic has been refuted by a number of postwar capitalist economies. Their rejection of this argument would seem to have been based less on ideological grounds than on their need to achieve a degree of social, structural and spatial balance in the distribution of resources. In contrast, meanwhile, to the imperative character of planning in the controlled economies, the State has given an indicative orientation to planning in the market economies.
Culture, discourse (self-expression) and social development in the Caribbean
Cultural domination is an important phenomenon throughout the developing world, but it is even more so in those countries which, like most of the Caribbean nations, are still going through the first stages of decolonization.
The international division of industrial labour and the core-periphery concept
The crisis has helped to increase the Latin American discussion of foreign trade, both as regards the underlying causes of the region’s problems in this field and the most suitable policy measures for tackling them. In this context, this article is useful because it gives an overall summary picture of the main theories regarding the division of labour and trade at the world level.
Chilean youth and social exclusion
Young people in Chile have seen a sharp increase in their participation and their chances of involvement in the social roles shaped during the postwar period of expansion. The rapid urbanization, the great expansion of education systems, the extension of the political rights of citizenship, and the growing absorption of skilled and unskilled manpower by the modern production and services sectors were some of the factors which mobilized young people and turned them into some of the most committed agents of development and modernization; since development and modernization were also the axes of consensus among almost all the social and political protagonists, youth became, almost inadvertently, one of the central agents in the system. One of the most graphic instances of this was the remarkable political and cultural influence exercised by the student movements towards the end of the 1960s.
The preparation of natural and cultural heritage inventories and accounts
The present article explores the difficult problem of natural and cultural heritage inventories and accounts. First of all, it defines the concept of overall heritage and then states the aims that these programmes must pursue for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It then suggests some types of nomenclature or classification of heritage.
Trade and equilibrium among the ALADI countries
The Latin American economic crisis, basically caused by the adjustment of the external sector with a view to generating surpluses to service the debt with the international financial system, has had a powerful adverse effect on the trade flows of the ALADI countries. Nevertheless, an effective co-operation among them is now more necessary than ever in order to overcome the external bottleneck and restore the levels of intra-zonal trade. The reactivation of zonal trade should, moreover, generate additional trade on a relatively more balanced and stable basis than in the past, through the multilateral linkages within the zone.
New objectives for the development of mining resources
Agricultural planning in the countries of the Caribbean Community
More than 33 States and territories make up the Caribbean basin today, For several centuries they were colonies of European powers —Spain, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom— and even today those countries, now joined by the United States of America, still make their dominant presence felt.
Agricultural sector policy and macro-economic planning
This article is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the links which need to be established between sectoral and macro-planning. In the process it discusses some of the planning methods used in the small open economies of the Caribbean and provides some ideas as to the direction in which they may evolve over time. While examples are drawn principally from the experience of Trinidad and Tobago, the basic principles, as well as the more general comments, apply faithfully to the planning patterns prevailing in most Caribbean countries.
Macroeconomic models and planning in the context of an uncertain future: the French experience
Enorm ous structural adjustm ents are needed in order to emerge from the crisis, and this makes it more vital than ever to think in the medium and long terms. The failure of the policies of the past has largely been due to their negligence vis-a-vis the future: negligence concerning income form ation unfavourable to investm ent and the creation of employment and price stability; negligence concerning deficits resulting in growing indebtedness; negligence concerning the lack of a systematic training and research effort; and negligence concerning the absence of institutions capable of ensuring the maintenance of the kind of intern ational economic order needed in a world in which the interdependence among countries has increased significantly.
Prebisch’s ideas on the world economy
This article identifies three main phases in the evolution of Prebisch’s ideas on the international economy. During the first of these, he outlined his concept of the centre-periphery system and its role in the fundamental structural disequilibria of peripheral countries, with particular attention to their propensity to deficits and indebtedness and the trend towards a deterioration in the terms of trade of the primary commodities they exported. He also brought out the repercussions of their narrow specialization in primary activities, associated with adherence to the principle of static comparative advantage.
An assessment of the structuralist paradigm for Latin American development and the prospects for its renovation
The promotion of export-led development is usually accom panied by strong criticism of the modalities assumed by im port-substitution industrialization (ISI) in Latin America, The premise underlying the criticism reveled at ISI by the neoliberal school is that these modalities have conformed more or less closely to the theoretical recommendations of ECLAC and the structuralist approach deriving therefrom.
Turning page in relations between Latin America and the European communities
The decisive factor which set Europe on the road to unity was a political one and not the result of a calculation about economic convenience. The absence of this factor explains the failure of the efforts made in Latin America to achieve effective co-operation in intra-regional trade or to unite national efforts around something more effective than joint statements.
Ecuador: Crisis and adjustment policies. Their effect on agriculture
In the 1970s the production and export of oil caused enormous economic and social changes in Ecuador. The gross dometic product grew at rates of between 14 and 25%, and the re were considerable in creases in the formation of capital, indemand — especially in the publicsector— and in im ports. The first signs of a balance-of-payments problem appeared in 1975 and they reappeared with force in 1977, reaching two years later levels of external debt whose service took 65% of export earnings.