Reduced Inequalities

Within Latin America, Uruguay stands out by its equalitarian income distribution, the solidity of its democratic institutions, and its level of social integration. Over the last decade, however, there have been signs of cracks in this desirable image which adversely affect the harmony of social relations. These cracks take the form of marginal behaviour: i.e., types of behaviour which are not governed by socially accepted patterns. In this study, the explanation for these types of behaviour has been sought in the divergences between cultural goals, the structures of opportunities for attaining those goals, and the shaping of individual capacities for taking advantage of them. A central premise of the approach adopted is that the factors determining marginal forms of behaviour build up their effects in a cyclical manner throughout the different stages of individual lives and from generation to generation.

Now that the neoliberal economic model, under whose sway Latin America is seeing out the present millennium, has been in force for several years, this is a particularly good time to take stock of the experience accumulated so far. Economists normally set about this task by breaking down and analysing the characteristics and components of the programmes applied in the various countries. An aspect which is often neglected in these assessments, however, is that of the social and political viability of the measures adopted, which does not only depend on their technical merits.

In a world of some two hundred countries, only a relatively few –mainly members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development– can be identified as “winners”, that is to say, countries with high and sustained annual per capita incomes in the order of US$ 20,000. Among other factors, some of the principal features of winner countries are that: i) they have been through an intense industrialization process, ii) they have projected that process into the international economy in the form of exports of manufactures, and iii) the leading national companies which have exported manufactures have been transformed into transnational corporations (TNCs) in the process. Many developing Asian countries have used the apparel industry as a springboard to deepen their industrialization process, especially by becoming suppliers of “full packages” to international buyers, involving the complete manufacture of apparel according to the designs provided by their international clients. For many Caribbean Basin countries, apparel exports represent their principal link with the international economy. In this case, however, since those exports stem from a low wageexport processing zone-special access package designed to help United States apparel TNCs to compete better in their home market against Asian imports, they do not produce the desired developmental results in the Caribbean. The United States apparel TNCs employ only those factors that allow them to improve the efficiency of their international system of integrated production, which are essentially the low wages paid in the case of the Caribbean Basin. Consequently, instead of deepening the local industrialization process, they truncate it. The exports do not represent the external projection of the local industrialization process, but merely the assembly of imported components. The local apparel companies are not internationalized in the process, but instead have their very existence threatened. Thus, as part of a developmental trajectory, these activities have worn threadbare and need replacement by something better.

This article analyses the relationship betw een the Dublin Principles of 1992, integrated water planning and water law. The Dublin Principles were an attempt to concisely state the main issues and thrust of water management: fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment; water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels; women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water, and water has an economic value in all its competing uses, and should be recognized as an economic good.

This article analyses the relations between the competitiveness of an economy and the labour regulations in force in it. It is argued that economic theory is not conclusive regarding the impact of labour regulations on competitiveness, since different schools of thought maintain opposing positions in many respects. Moreover, empirical research has shown that the information provided with respect to these assumed linkages is not very relevant Various policy consequences follow from this: countries have a variety of strategies at their disposal and greater leeway that is usually suggested, since many policies aimed at improving equity do not necessarily involve any restrictions on competitiveness.

In the six Central American countries -C osta Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, which make up the Central American Common Market, and Panam a- non-traditional exports increased in the 1970s, went down between 1980 and 1986 because o f macroeconomic imbalances, armed conflicts and the crisis in the Central American Comm on Market, but grew once again in the second half o f the 1980s and the early 1990s.

This exposition is about the United States and the Third World after the Cold War. However, this matter can only be understood in the light of the long history of the relations between the Western countries –the centre of the world system– and the periphery. This history began at the end of the 15th century, when the Europeans, after a thousand years of defending themselves against invaders from Asia and Africa, embarked on their own era of world conquest.

This article analyses the economic rationale of Brazil’s tariff policy during the first two years of the Plano Real. To this end, a study is made of the changes made in import duties for all the products traded. The tariff reform process in Brazil was begun in 1988, after the old Tariff Act had been in effect for thirty years, and represented a marked intensification in the process of trade openness, with the definition of a schedule of gradually decreasing tariffs which was further speeded up as from 1990.

In recent years the future of mankind has become the object of intense and lively controversy which has led to the construction of a number of ‘scenarios of the unacceptable’ and the proposition of various strategies for avoiding them. Of all the reports produced, Limits to Growth has had the widest circulation, notably contributing to the consolidation of the ‘futures movement’ by its dramatic emphasis on the perils threatening the ‘carrying capacity of the planet’. But the United Nations too has had different scenarios and strategies of its own, which it has put forward in such resolutions as those on the International Development Strategy and the New International Economic Order, directed towards the creation of a better society.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Medina Echavarria’s thinking on the subject of the University can easily be outlined. However, a detailed treatment implies the double task of dealing both with the variety of situations in Latin American universities and with the complexity of Medina’s thinking. Each of these tasks is difficult enough in itself; together, they constitute an almost insuperable challenge, at least for my abilities. I have therefore concluded that the most sensible method might perhaps be to examine what are or what were Medina’s main concerns with respect to the University, and the extent to which its subsequent development has met those concerns or to what degree they have lost their validity.

The cycle of structural transformation and the intensive policies of modernization and social participation through education brought about a number of changes in social structures which worked to the benefit of the young generations.

In this article the author analyses the evolution of the Latin American agricultural sector from a long-term viewpoint, centering on the relation between the evolution of various macroeconomic policies and that of agriculture in the region. Among these policies, he highlights the importance of domestic relative prices and the significant impact of policies relating to the form of insertion of the region in the international economy in the areas of trade, finance and production.

The past 15 years have served as a testing ground for urban employment policy research and design in Latin America, In this article the author analyses the major issues dealt with during this period as well as the main advances achieved in this connection.

Before all else, I would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the government and people of Brazil for welcoming us to this beautiful and hospitable city. It has been 35 years since our highest intergovernmental forum last met here, but in no way does this mean that ECLAC has been foreign to the Brazilian experience. On the contrary, it has been our privilege to follow the evolution of the Brazilian economy with the greatest interest, particularly through the ECLAC office which has been functioning in this country since 1968 with the support of the government. Brazil, a melting pot of the most varied historical legacies, has enormously enriched our store of knowledge by, for example, pointing the way to a form of industrialization oriented towards world trade flows.