External dependence and economic theory

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to try to break down this impasse by reconsidering the problem of underdevelopment along the lines of the most recent Latin American thought. We will attempt to show that the scope of theorisation can be widened if the concept of "underdeveloped economy" is substituted by an approach which makes it clear that the underdeveloped economies referred to are subsystems whose behavior cannot be entirely understood unless we use hypotheses relating to the structure and functioning of the global system, or at least some hypotheses on the relations between the subsystems which produce, and those which import technology and new patterns of behaviour. Having adopted this approach, the problem of the rationality of allocating resources a problem which is the touchstone of neo-classic theory keeps its intrinsic significance and only ceases to be relevant when looked at strictly from the angle of a subsystem which imports technology and behavior patterns, that is, when the relations between dominant and dependent subsystems are ignored. It therefore becomes essential to put forward hypotheses on the structure of the system as a whole, if one wants to establish a basis from which to discover the type of rationality which determines the allocation of resources on the level of the agents responsible for production decisions.