Theories of development :

Abstract

This book represents an effort to grapple with these issues through the discussion of theories of development and their evolution from classical political economy onwards. It intends to show the sense of their progression, which is determined by the very evolution of the capitalist mode of production. But at the same time it seeks to emphasize that the logic of determination cannot be conceived in general and abstract terms, as if the capitalist system were perfectly homogeneous all over the world. Difference and heterogeneity within a basically common capitalist framework must result from the specificity of historical processes of class struggle. The book wants to show how the best strand of dependency theory succeeds in reconciling the general determinants of the capitalist system with the specificity of the Latin American situation in a way which abstract orthodox or Althusserian Marxism cannot hope to achieve.