RAUL Prebisch, former executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), gained recognition due to his work on dependency theory for his groundbreaking Prebisch-Singer hypothesis.

Contrary to the traditional viewpoint on dependency theory that underdevelopment in the developing world is caused by neoliberal economic policies that rest at the resources of peripheral regions, he opined that the main reason behind this underdevelopment is neither neoliberalism nor neocolonialism.

Instead, it is the lack of industrialisation and a prior focus on the doctrine of economic dualism. He argued that only those states have a tendency to survive in the market that have a vibrant economy.

On the other hand, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president, and a renowned scholar of sociology, economy and political science, also developed a thesis on dependency theory, which is deemed an extension of the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis.

While addressing the problem of the developing countries and why they fail in building their own industries, as Prebisch had asserted, Cardoso concluded that three classes in any society do not let the nation as a whole to walk on the path to success.

The foremost is the class of landed elite whose raw products are being exported outside and are key in policy development in any country, as 60 per cent of public representatives comprise such people.

Then there are the national bourgeois; the producers of consumer products, such as sugar, wheat and rice. They believe that opening the market to global competition might cause damage to their business with the arrival of low-priced better products. Hence, they are against both industries and the open market.

The military enterprises are the third class which, according to Cardoso, does not let industries get installed in any developing country.

They in the period of time have developed a corporation which is hand-in-glove with the landed elite and the national bourgeois. As such, their interests are at stake with such development.

We, in Pakistan, will do well to see if we find some traces of similarity between our reality and the theorisation cited above. After all, we happen to be a developing country.

Sultan ul Arifeen
Gujranwala

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2021