Sub-imperialism revisited : dependency theory in the thought of Ruy Mauro Marini

208 Pages·2017·2.553 MB·English

by  Adrián Sotelo Valencia, Jacob Lagnado

Sub-Imperialism Revisited
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Studies in Critical
Social Sciences
Series Editor
David Fasenfest
(Wayne State University)
VOLUME 105
Critical Global Studies
Series Editor
Ricardo A. Dello Buono
(Manhattan College, New York)
Editorial Board
José Bell Lara (University of Havana, Cuba)
Walden Bello (State University of New York at Binghamton, usa and
University of the Philippines, Philippines)
Samuel Cohn (Texas A & M University, usa)
Ximena de la Barra (South American Dialogue, Chile/Spain)
Víctor M. Figueroa (Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico)
Marco A. Gandásegui, Jr., (Universidad de Panamá, Panama)
Ligaya Lindio-McGovern (Indiana University-Kokomo, usa)
Daphne Phillips (University of West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago)
Jon Shefner (University of Tennessee-Knoxville, usa)
Teivo Teivainen (Universidad de Helsinki, Finland and Universidad Nacional Mayor de
San Marcos, Peru)
Henry Veltmeyer (Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia, Canada and Universidad
Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico)
Peter Waterman (Institute of Social Studies (Retired), The Hague, Netherlands)
VOLUME 7
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cgs
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Sub-Imperialism Revisited
Dependency Theory in the Thought of
Ruy Mauro Marini
By
Adrián Sotelo Valencia
Translated by
Jacob Lagnado
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Created by María del Carmen Solanes Carraro.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sotelo Valencia, Adrián, author.
Title: Sub-imperialism revisited : dependency theory in the thought of Ruy
Mauro Marini / by Adrián Sotelo Valencia ; translated by Jacob Lagnado.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2017] | Series: Studies in critical
social sciences ; volume 105 | Series: Critical global studies ; volume 7
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017008347 (print) | LCCN 2017022194 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004319417 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004319400 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Economic development--Latin America. | Capitalism--Political
aspects--Latin America. | Imperialism. | Marini, Ruy Mauro.
Classification: LCC HC125 (ebook) | LCC HC125 .S6854 2017 (print) |
DDC 338.98--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008347
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1573-4234
isbn 978-90-04-31940-0 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-31941-7 (e-book)
Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite
910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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In memory of Ruy Mauro Marini
⸪
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Contents
Foreword ix
Carlos Eduardo Martins
List of Diagrams, Figures and Tables xiii
Introduction 1
1 Dependency Theory in the Post-1945 Development Literature of Latin
America 6
2 Marini’s Marxism and Dependency Theory Today 18
3 Neo-Imperialism and Neo-Dependency: Two Sides of the Same
Historical-Political Process 42
4 Sub-Imperialism and Dependency 54
5 The United States and Brazil: Antagonistic Cooperation 74
6 Brasil Potência vs. Sub-Imperialism 86
7 Dictatorship, Democracy and the State of the Fourth Power 114
8 Sub-Imperialism and the Contemporary Capitalist Crisis 131
Epilogue 159
Bibliography 175
Index 186
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Foreword
Adrián Sotelo Valencia’s new book, Sub-Imperialism Revisited: Dependency
Theory in the Thought of Ruy Mauro Marini, represents a serious attempt to
bring Marini’s work up to date theoretically and empirically in light of the
major issues facing Latin America and the world today. A student of Marini
with numerous works published in different languages, here Sotelo puts the
central arguments of the Marxist theory of dependency as conceptualised by
Marini to the test of time by throwing them open to debate within the social
sciences.
In the first two of the book’s eight chapters, the author compares the
specific nature of the Marxist theory of dependency to other perspectives,
including ecla’s developmentalism and modernization theories; endogen-
ism; neo-Gramscianism; postcolonial theory; world-systems theory and the
Weberian and developmentalist interpretations of dependency. He argues in
favour of developing the Marxist version of dependency theory and rejects hy-
bridisations which only mischaracterise it and make developing its concepts
that much harder. Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 discuss the specificity of dependency
theory in relation to the theory of imperialism; the chief features of imperial-
ism and dependency in their current phase, and the particular place occupied
by sub-imperialism within dependency theory. In doing so, Sotelo draws out
sub-imperialism’s economic roots in the capital accumulation process and its
relationship with political forces and the State, as well as the characteristics it
has assumed in contemporary Latin America and Brazil in particular.
The author goes on to situate the theory of sub-imperialism within the
debate with those who claim Brazil is set to ‘overcome’ its peripheral and de-
pendent condition and become an imperialist pole and world power, albeit
one subservient to hegemonic capitalism. Ruy Mauro Marini passed away in
1997, and so Chapters 7 and 8 explore the relevance of his analysis today with a
discussion of his concepts of the counter-insurgency state and the state of the
fourth power which takes as its starting point the patterns of capital accumula-
tion and contradictions between social classes and competing political forces
present in Latin America since the 1980s.
As a leading exponent of the Marxist theory of dependency, Sotelo’s the-
ses are consistent with the view of contemporary capitalism he has presented
throughout his body of work, namely that
1) Global capitalism has entered a new stage of dependency under a pat-
tern of accumulation under the hegemony of fictitious financial capital.
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