The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era

A group of Latin American economists and policymakers challenged the orthodoxies of development theory and policy, establishing their own form of hegemony and reshaping regional and international governance. They offered a development agenda that sought more trade, aid, and a transformation of both the developed and developing world. Margarita Fajardo's book "The World That Latin America Created" explores the history of dependency theory, revealing the diversity of the movement and the fraught relationship between dependentistas and cepalinos.

Format: Hardback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 25 February 2022
Publisher: Harvard University Press

After the Second World War, a group of economists and policymakers from across Latin America envisioned a new global economy and launched an intellectual movement that would eventually capture the world. They charged that the trade and finance systems that bound the world's nations together were frustrating the economic prospects of Latin America and other regions. Through the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), the Spanish and Portuguese acronym, cepalinos challenged the orthodoxies of development theory and policy. Simultaneously, they demanded more trade, more aid, and offered a development agenda to transform both the developed and developing worlds. Eventually, cepalinos established their form of hegemony, outpacing the United States and the International Monetary Fund as the agenda setters for a region traditionally held under the orbit of Washington and its institutions. By doing so, cepalinos reshaped both regional and international governance and set an intellectual agenda that still resonates today.

Drawing on unexplored sources from the Americas and Europe, Margarita Fajardo retells the history of dependency theory, revealing the diversity of an often-oversimplified movement and the fraught relationship between cepalinos, their dependentista critics, and the regional and global Left. By examining the political ventures of dependentistas and cepalinos, The World That Latin America Created is a story of ideas that brought about real change.

Weight: 608g
Dimension: 165 x 241 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674260498