Critique and anti-critique: essays on dependence and reformism

362 Pages·1984·21.087 MB·English

by  Andre Gunder Frank

Critique and
Anti-Critique
Essays on Dependence
and Reformism
Andre Gunder Frank
Since the late 1960s the world has wit¬
nessed the election of Chile’s first Marxist
president, followed by the bloody defeat
of AilenHe’s program for a peaceful tran¬
sition to socialism; the victory of the
Vietnamese and Kampuchean revolu¬
tions, followed by war among these coun¬
tries and China; the intensification of the
struggle against imperialism in Central
America and elsewhere in the Third
World; and, in the industrialized West,
the rise of Reaganism and Thatcherism
on the right and of Eurocommunism and
Mitterand’s attempt to reintroduce
Keynesianism against the stream from the
left—all within the context of an ever
more manifest global economic, social,
political, and ideological crisis in the
world as a whole and in the Third World
in particular.
As an originator and main spokesman
of dependency theory, Andre Gunder
Frank has participated in theoretical,
ideological, and political controversies
about these and many other contempo¬
rary issues. Some of these political issues,
as Frank observes in his preface, “are
partially hidden below the surface of the
social scientific argument.” His earlier
pieces were written “to contribute to the
Revolution ... to assimilate the Latin
American Revolution and the inspiration
it finds in the Cuban Revolution.” In the
(Continued on back flap.)
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CRITIQUE
AND
ANTI-CRITIQUE
Essays on
Dependence and Reformism
The direction of our scientific exertions, particularly in
economics, is conditioned by the society in which we live, and
most directly by the political climate (which, in turn, is
related to all other changes in society). . . . The cue to the
continual reorientation of our work has normally come from
the sphere of politics. Responding to that cue, students turn
to research on issues that have attained political impor¬
tance. ... So it has always been. The major recastings of
economic thought... were all responses to changing political
conditions and opportunities.
Gunnar Myrdal
Asian Drama
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various
ways; the point, however, is to change it
Karl Marx
Theses on Feuerbach
Man makes his own history, but not as he pleases.
Karl Marx
CRITIQUE
AND
ANTI-CRITIQUE
Essays on
Dependence and Reformism
Andre Gunder Frank
PRAEGER SPECIAL STUDIES • PRAEGER SCIENTIFIC
New York • Philadelphia • Eastbourne, UK
Toronto • Hong Kong • Tokyo • Sydney
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Frank, Andre Gunder, 1929-
Critique and anti-critique.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Developing countries—Economic conditions—
Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Dependency—Addresses,
essays, lectures. 3. Economic development—Addresses,
essays, lectures. 4. Social sciences—Addresses,
essays, lectures. I. Title.
HC59.7. F6865 1983 330.91724 83-13683
ISBN 0-03-063737-6
ISBN 0-03-063738-4 (pbk.)
Published in 1984 by Praeger Publishers
CBS Educational and Professional Publishing,
a Division of CBS Inc.
521 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10175 USA
© 1984 by Andre Gunder Frank
All rights reserved
456789 052 9876545321
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
PREFA CE vii
ON SOCIAL SCIENCE
1: What is the Scientific Value of the Study of the Development of
Underdevelopment? None! 3
2: Science and Underdevelopment in the Third World 6
3: On the Political Study of New Nations 20
4: On the Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy 25
5: 'Anthropology = Ideology; Applied Anthropology = Politics 31
6: On Theoretical Issues in Economic Anthropology 42
7: On “Feudal” Modes, Models and Methods of Escaping
Capitalist Reality 58
8: Reflections on Green, Red and White Revolutions
in India 62
ON ECONOMIC HISTORY
9: On Commercial Imbalances in the Third World 77
10: On Some Questionable Questions about Marxist Theory
and International Capital Flows 82
11: Even Heretics Remain Bound by Traditional Thought in
Formulating Their Heresies 87
12: A Critical Review of the History of Capitalism in Mexico:
The Origins 1521-1763 104
ON POLITICAL ECONOMY
Politics and Bias: A Critical Review of Rostow and Hirschman 113
The Theories of Milton Friedman on Chile: Equilibrium on the
Point of a Bayonet 125
15: Critique of the Finance Minister's 1970 Report to the Congress
of Chile 137
16: The Political Economy of the Economic Policy of the
Communist Party of Chile 155
17: An Answer to the Communist Party of Chile Which Went
Unpublished in Its Newspaper 161
V
18: The Lessons of Chile 167
19: Is a Left Eurocommunism Possible? 170
20: Kampuchea, Vietnam, China: Observations and Reflections 176
21: After Reaganomics and Thatcherism, What? From Keynesian
Demand Management via Supply-side Economics to Corporate
State Planning and 1984 189
22: Global Crisis and Transformation 208
23: Policy Ad Hockery: Unemployment and World Crisis of
Economic Policy Formation 230
ANTI-CRITIQUE
24: An Answer to Critics 245
25: Real Marxism Is Marxist Realism 279
APPENDIX
26: Introduction, Contents, and Requiem for a Reader on
Underdevelopment 293
INDEX 327
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 337