Dependency and Development

Abstract

In 1969 Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto published a short interpretative account of Latin American history (Cardoso and Faletto, 1969). It should be noted that it is by no means clear whether the authors intend to develop a general theoretical model of Latin American development, or whether they are merely applying a particular kind of methodology to a series of concrete historical cases without any attempt to develop such a general theory. At the very minimum, however, Dependency and Development indicates the key variables which, according to the authors, enable the analyst to make sense of the multiplicity of developmental paths followed by Latin American countries. Their starting point is a differentiation of types of export economies in the nineteenth century into two basic types: (1) enclave economies and (2) economies with national control of the productive system. The enclaves which Cardoso and Faletto have in mind are mining or plantation enclaves. Although the image conjured up by the notion of an enclave is of a geographically separate entity, the key feature for these authors appears to be not the geographical situation of the productive enterprise but rather whether ownership is foreign or domestic.