Out from Underdevelopment Revisited: Changing Global Structures and the Remaking of the Third World (International Political Economy Series)

Development may be best understood in terms of the interplay among capital accumulation, the state, and class. Subject to globalizing structures, classes, in turn, are examined in light of their interactions with culture, especially gender and religion as well as ecology. Case-studies - Brazil, the Asian newly industrializing countries, China, and Mozambique - reveal three possibilities for overcoming underdevelopment: joining, leaving, or weaving through global capitalism. The conclusions do not fail to present specific principles upon which policies can be based. Development may be best understood in terms of the fluid and variable interplay between capital accumulation, the state and class. Subject to globalizing structures, classes, in turn, are examined in their interactions with culture, especially gender and religion as well as ecology. Case-studies -- Brazil, the Asian newly industrializing countries, China and Mozambique -- reveal three possibilities for overcoming underdevelopment: joining, leaving, or weaving through global capitalism.

Rejecting the distinction between theory and practice as a false dichotomy, for the two are always tied, this analysis does not fail to present sharply defined principles upon which actual programmatic work can be based. To break the structures of underdevelopment, thirdworld countries must grasp the contradictions that drive the global political economy, not rely primarily on the impulses generated by the heartlands of world capitalism, learn to balance the ties of dependency, and exploit international market forces while setting limits to exploitation.

Front Matter....Pages i-xxv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Public Platitudes and Unfounded Attitudes....Pages 3-27 Front Matter....Pages 29-29 Sources of Received Ideas about the Third World....Pages 31-48 Received Ideas and International Institutions....Pages 49-79 Back to the Nineteenth Century for New Ideas....Pages 80-101 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 The Conventional Route, Joining Global Capitalism: Track 1 — Brazil....Pages 105-129 The Conventional Route, Joining Global Capitalism: Track 2 — the Asian NICs....Pages 130-153 The Exit Option, Withdrawing from and Re-entering Global Capitalism: China under and after Mao....Pages 154-180 The Alternative Path, Weaving through Global Capitalism: Mozambique....Pages 181-214 Front Matter....Pages 215-215 What Works in the Third World?....Pages 217-250 Postscript....Pages 251-259 Back Matter....Pages 260-289

Development may be best understood in terms of the interplay among capital accumulation, the state and class. Subject to globalizing structures, classes are examined in light of their interactions with culture, especially gender, religion, and ecology. Case studies about Brazil, the newly industrializing Asian countries, China, and Mozambique reveal three possibilities for overcoming underdevelopment by joining, leaving or weaving through global capitalism. The conclusions do not fail to present specific principles upon which policies can be based.