ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a general assessment of dependency theory, and deals with the basic features of the dependency perspective. It analyzes the economic relations between Latin America and the developed countries, emphasizing the phenomenon called strategic dependency—a dependency of the capitalist core on the low-priced strategic minerals, cheap labor, and markets of, principally, underdeveloped societies. The book outlines different strategies to overcome dependency and underdevelopment. It argues that underdevelopment can be remedied only by implementing a "revolution of being," the worldwide replacement of the "anti-values" of the capitalist and socialist societies by the "values" of a humanistic society embodied in a "new person." The book examines the only viable alternative to dependency is a strategy of "self-reliance." It describes the evolution or development programs in Cuba, illustrating the concrete obstacles that underdeveloped countries face in attempting to overcome dependency through socialist construction.
