ABSTRACT
This chapter examines one such local strategy: that of Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI). It outlines an ideal-typical model of import substitution industrialization and then investigates two concrete cases of ISI: Brazil and India. The theoretical rationale for ISI strategies therefore was to draw on the opportunities offered, and eliminate the constraints established, by the world economy. Advocates of ISI also hoped that it would involve substantial progress from the production of light industrial goods to heavy and high technology industries. The rationale for the deliberate policy of ISI was to reduce dependence on expensive manufactured goods and create a diversified industrial structure that would “lead to a process of self-sustaining growth sufficient to overcome secular backwardness and bring about a rise in incomes and living standards”. Independent India can also be regarded as a case study of ISI, albeit one with important differences from Brazil.
