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The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era
How a group of intellectuals and policymakers transformed development economics and gave Latin America a new position in the world.
After the Second World War demolished the old order, a group of economists and policymakers from across Latin America imagined a new global economy and launched an intellectual movement that would eventually capture the world. They charged that the systems of trade and finance that bound the world’s nations together were frustrating the economic prospects of Latin America and other regions of the world. Through the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, or CEPAL, the Spanish and Portuguese acronym, cepalinos challenged the orthodoxies of development theory and policy. Simultaneously, they demanded more not less trade, more not less aid, and offered a development agenda to transform both the developed and the developing world. Eventually, cepalinos established their own form of hegemony, outpacing the United States and the International Monetary Fund as the agenda setters for a region traditionally held under the orbit of Washington and its institutions. By doing so, cepalinos reshaped both regional and international governance and set an intellectual agenda that still resonates today.
Drawing on unexplored sources from the Americas and Europe, Margarita Fajardo retells the history of dependency theory, revealing the diversity of an often-oversimplified movement and the fraught relationship between cepalinos , their dependentista critics, and the regional and global Left. By examining the political ventures of dependentistas and cepalinos , The World That Latin America Created is a story of ideas that brought about real change.
After the Second World War demolished the old order, a group of economists and policymakers from across Latin America imagined a new global economy and launched an intellectual movement that would eventually capture the world. They charged that the systems of trade and finance that bound the world’s nations together were frustrating the economic prospects of Latin America and other regions of the world. Through the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, or CEPAL, the Spanish and Portuguese acronym, cepalinos challenged the orthodoxies of development theory and policy. Simultaneously, they demanded more not less trade, more not less aid, and offered a development agenda to transform both the developed and the developing world. Eventually, cepalinos established their own form of hegemony, outpacing the United States and the International Monetary Fund as the agenda setters for a region traditionally held under the orbit of Washington and its institutions. By doing so, cepalinos reshaped both regional and international governance and set an intellectual agenda that still resonates today.
Drawing on unexplored sources from the Americas and Europe, Margarita Fajardo retells the history of dependency theory, revealing the diversity of an often-oversimplified movement and the fraught relationship between cepalinos , their dependentista critics, and the regional and global Left. By examining the political ventures of dependentistas and cepalinos , The World That Latin America Created is a story of ideas that brought about real change.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
296 pages, Hardcover
Published February 8, 2022
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September 7, 2026Considero que el libro de Margarita Fajardo es un libro de referencia para dos tipos de lectores: 1) aquellos familiarizados con el pensamiento cepalino fundacional (Raúl Prebish, Celso Furtado, Juan Noyola Vázquez, Aníbal Pinto Santa Cruz y Osvaldo Sunkel) y 2) aquellos que no conocen el pensamiento cepalino, en especial anglosajones y jóvenes lectores que buscan conocer las ideas económicas y de política de la institución. A mi gusto, es un libro que cumple de forma descriptiva y adecuada en esbozar las ideas de los autores que conformaron a la CEPAL durante sus primeras décadas de existencia, enuncia momentos históricos clave de la región y cómo la CEPAL fomentó e impulsó una agenda ambiciosa y creativa en materia de desarrollo y crecimiento económico, caracterizando las oportunidades y limitaciones que tenía la región, así como los principales países de América Latina.
Importante mencionar que es un libro de pensamiento institucional y económico, con sus limitaciones, pero considero que es ya una puerta nueva y bien aceitada para revisitar el pensamiento de la CEPAL, sus clásicos y sus actividades, así como una invitación a un público nuevo a conocer y hacer propias las ideas de los cepalinos.
Me hubiera gustado encontrar más datos estadísticos, un apéndice de los modelos analíticos de los modelos verbales y una lista de los principales documentos o políticas económicas desarrollados por cepalinos.
No considero erróneo el incluir a la escuela dependentista en el libro; creo que es un acierto, pues permite entender las fallas, limitaciones y el diálogo nutritivo que existía entre los cepalinos (sobre todo Furtado, Pinto y Noyola) y sus críticos (aunque me parece un error el énfasis de Gunder Frank frente a Dos Santos; espero la historia le haga justicia al segundo).}
Importante mencionar que es un libro de pensamiento institucional y económico, con sus limitaciones, pero considero que es ya una puerta nueva y bien aceitada para revisitar el pensamiento de la CEPAL, sus clásicos y sus actividades, así como una invitación a un público nuevo a conocer y hacer propias las ideas de los cepalinos.
Me hubiera gustado encontrar más datos estadísticos, un apéndice de los modelos analíticos de los modelos verbales y una lista de los principales documentos o políticas económicas desarrollados por cepalinos.
No considero erróneo el incluir a la escuela dependentista en el libro; creo que es un acierto, pues permite entender las fallas, limitaciones y el diálogo nutritivo que existía entre los cepalinos (sobre todo Furtado, Pinto y Noyola) y sus críticos (aunque me parece un error el énfasis de Gunder Frank frente a Dos Santos; espero la historia le haga justicia al segundo).}
July 30, 2024
An excellent read covering the history of Latin American dependency theories through the intertwined theories and practices of the cepalinos and dependentistas, as well as their inherent tensions, and centres those who had traditionally been in the peripheries of global history
Although the Latin American practitioners of the various strains of dependency theories focused nationally within regional and global economic systems and contexts in which they often sought to transform the world through the transformation of the Latin American region, I found it telling that others sought to adapt dependency theories to conform with neoliberal logic, whilst others took a more radical approach to analyse and advocate for the Third World
I also found it particularly interesting and revealing of the inherent tensions in dependency thought that Quijano, who had participated in the discussions among cepalinos that have rose to "Dependency and Development", rejected the use of the term "dependency" and "its jargon" as "a deus ex machina", as the endpoint rather than the beginning of the analysis in contrast to the emphasis on concrete historical situations that characterised Cardoso and Faletto's work
Although the Latin American practitioners of the various strains of dependency theories focused nationally within regional and global economic systems and contexts in which they often sought to transform the world through the transformation of the Latin American region, I found it telling that others sought to adapt dependency theories to conform with neoliberal logic, whilst others took a more radical approach to analyse and advocate for the Third World
I also found it particularly interesting and revealing of the inherent tensions in dependency thought that Quijano, who had participated in the discussions among cepalinos that have rose to "Dependency and Development", rejected the use of the term "dependency" and "its jargon" as "a deus ex machina", as the endpoint rather than the beginning of the analysis in contrast to the emphasis on concrete historical situations that characterised Cardoso and Faletto's work
November 25, 2023
The organization and style made it a bit difficult to get through, but I still think the author has something interesting to share.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews