ABSTRACT

Although the problem of dependence has recently become a. prominent theme in social science writing on Latin America, analysts have devoted surprisingly little attention to the strategic issues it raises for the practitioners of development statescraft themselves. The literature on dependence is notable for absence of any policy orientation; in most cases dependence is treated as an omnipresent, but relatively autonomous “conditioning factor” contributing to the regional pattern of persistent instability and slow economic growth. 1 However, while dependence for most Latin American countries is a function of enduring economic and geopolitical circumstances, it is not immune to policy adjustment; its scope, forms and direction of change can in most cases be shaped and managed. A growing number of countries have begun to experiment with strategies designed to do just this. Because dependence and the problems associated with its control and management are so important—they are equivalent in the political economy of many underdeveloped countries to problems of military security for the economic and political superpowers—they deserve to be treated as a distinct and central area of policy-oriented analysis. As Peter Evans (1971:692) has put it: “For most poor countries greater autonomy must mean increased control over external economic relations, not their absence.”