Rethinking development theory: Insights from East Asia and Latin America

Development theory dealing with the highly industrialized countries of East Asia and Latin America has foundered in terms of its ability to generalize. The theories and concepts often are biased because they are derived from a selective and uneven reading of evidence from the two regions. This paper outlines the perceptions and misconceptions of a variety of theoretical perspectives on development, and then presents cross-regional evidence from East Asia and Latin America that suggests the need for a reformulation and synthesis of some of these earlier approaches. This theoretical synthesis focuses on three related themes: (1) the declining significance of industrialization; (2) the position of core and peripheral capital in commodity chains and export/marketing networks, which are becoming key units of analysis in the contemporary global manufacturing system; and (3) a new framework for differentiating the roles of the newly industrializing countries in the world economy.

[1]  Enterprise Groups in East Asia--An Organizational Analysis , 1987 .

[2]  Gary Gereffi,et al.  Manufacturing Miracles: Paths of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia , 1990 .

[3]  Chalmers A. Johnson.  The “Internationalization” of the Japanese Economy , 1983 .

[4]  R. Barrett,et al.  Dependency Theory and Taiwan: Analysis of a Deviant Case , 1982, American Journal of Sociology.

[5]  Folker Fröbel,et al.  "The new international division of labour" , 1978 .

[6]  R. Thorp,et al.  Latin America in the 1930s: The Role of the Periphery in World Crisis@@@Argentina, Australia, and Canada: Studies in Comparative Development, 1870-1965 , 1984 .

[7]  N. Harris.  The end of the Third World : newly industrializing countries and the decline of an ideology , 1987 .

[8]  Michael P. Todaro,et al.  World Development Report 1988. , 1988 .

[9]  Hyun-Chin Lim.  Dependent development in Korea, 1963-1979 , 1985 .

[10]  Peter Evans,et al.  Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil , 1979 .

[11]  Ann Swidler.  CULTURE IN ACTION: SYMBOLS AND STRATEGIES* , 1986 .

[12]  F. Cardoso,et al.  Dependency and development in Latin America , 1979 .

[13]  T. Gold.  Dependent development in Taiwan , 1986 .

[14]  G. Gereffi,et al.  Commodity chains and footwear exports in the semiperiphery , 1990 .

[15]  G. O'donnell.  Modernization and bureaucratic-authoritarianism : studies in South American politics , 1973 .

[16]  D. Collier.  The New authoritarianism in Latin America , 1980 .

[17]  P. Berger.  The Capitalist Revolution , 1986 .

[18]  Immanuel Wallerstein,et al.  Dependence in an Interdependent World: The Limited Possibilities of Transformation Within the Capitalist World Economy , 1974, African Studies Review.

[19]  G. Gereffi.  Big Business and the State: East Asia and Latin America Compared , 1990, Asian Perspective.

[20]  Stephan M. Haggard,et al.  Newly Industrializing Asia in Transition: Policy Reform and American Response , 1987 .

[21]  T. Berrie.  World development report 1987 : The World Bank English edition published by Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, 288 pp, US$26.00 , 1987 .

[22]  D. Keesing.  Linking Up to Distant Markets: South to North Exports of Manufactured Consumer Goods , 1983 .

[23]  Gary Gereffi.  The Pharmaceutical Industry and Dependency in the Third World , 1983 .

[24]  A. Amsden.  Taiwan's Economic History , 1979 .

[25]  G. Hamilton,et al.  Market, Culture, and Authority: A Comparative Analysis of Management and Organization in the Far East , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[26]  Manuel Castells,et al.  The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. , 1990 .

[27]  Chand Attar,et al.  Economic planning and development , 1990 .

[28]  M. Shirley,et al.  World development report 1983 , 1983 .

[29]  B. Balassa.  Toward Renewed Economic Growth in Latin America , 1986 .

[30]  G. Gereffi.  Development Strategies and the Global Factory , 1989 .

[31]  B. Balassa.  The Newly Industrializing Countries in the World Economy , 1981 .

[32]  Jonathan Gershuny,et al.  The informal economy , 1979 .

[33]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.