ABSTRACT
According to many theorists, one of the clearest manifestations of dependency is a concentration on agricultural exports. In many ways Cuba represents the archetypical case; for most of this century Cuban sugar exports have dominated that nation’s economy, an economy in which slow growth and a yawning gap between rich and poor seemed like parts of an unalterable pattern. Fidel Castro’s coming to power resulted in a dramatic reduction of income inequality. It has not, however; according to John T. Smith, reduced dependency. Smith argues that in terms of the income derived from the export of sugar, Cuba was probably better off when its trade was with the capitalist economies than today, when most of its sugar goes to socialist economies. The dramatic reduction in income inequality, as well as other changes in the economy of Cuba, cannot therefore be attributed to a reduction of dependency, but rather to internal policy decisions made by Castro. It could be argued that even though trade with the socialist powers is not necessarily more profitable, nations that have joined the socialist orbit seem able to escape from the income inequality effects of dependency whereas those nations remaining within the capitalist orbit cannot. This hypothesis can be tested with reference to the Taiwanese case reported on in Chapter 27 .
