Mister.
Industrialization, Poverty and Paradigmatic Thinking in the English Speaking Caribbean
Davin Ramphall Department of Geography and Anthropology Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Studies Association, Havana, Cuba, May 21-24, 1991
1. Introduction
There js currently a crisis in development thinking in the English speaking Caribbean (and for that matter, in the entire Caribbean area). The timeworn, top-down, macro models of industrialization, be they of the import substitution mode or, more recently, of the export promotion variety, have failed to address seriously the concerns of the region 's poor, Indeed, by any measure of poverty, many countries of the English speaking Caribbean are worse off today than they were ten to fifteen years ago. The problem of endemic poverty, in turn, has led to periodic crises of legitimation for the states of the region. In this paper I look briefly at industrialization patterns in the English speaking Caribbean over the past three decades and suggest some reasons why they have failed to ameliorate significantly the poverty problem in the region. The following section elaborates on a conceptual framework which I find useful for theorizing and evaluating the industrial patterns--the framework of dependent capitalism. This is followed in section three by an overview and assessment of the industrialization strategies themselves. Given the failure of past attempts at industrialization, does there exist a viable alternative strategy of development for the poor? In sections four and five I shall argue that a viable alternative lies in community empowerment at the grassroots level.
2. Industrialization Within Dependent Capitalism: A Conceptual Framework 2.1. The Meaning of Dependent Capitalism Virtually all radical political economy analyses of underdevelopment in the less developed countries (LDCs) start off with the following basic theoretical
Davin Ramphall Department of Geography and Anthropology Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Studies Association, Havana, Cuba, May 21-24, 1991
1. Introduction
There js currently a crisis in development thinking in the English speaking Caribbean (and for that matter, in the entire Caribbean area). The timeworn, top-down, macro models of industrialization, be they of the import substitution mode or, more recently, of the export promotion variety, have failed to address seriously the concerns of the region 's poor, Indeed, by any measure of poverty, many countries of the English speaking Caribbean are worse off today than they were ten to fifteen years ago. The problem of endemic poverty, in turn, has led to periodic crises of legitimation for the states of the region. In this paper I look briefly at industrialization patterns in the English speaking Caribbean over the past three decades and suggest some reasons why they have failed to ameliorate significantly the poverty problem in the region. The following section elaborates on a conceptual framework which I find useful for theorizing and evaluating the industrial patterns--the framework of dependent capitalism. This is followed in section three by an overview and assessment of the industrialization strategies themselves. Given the failure of past attempts at industrialization, does there exist a viable alternative strategy of development for the poor? In sections four and five I shall argue that a viable alternative lies in community empowerment at the grassroots level.
2. Industrialization Within Dependent Capitalism: A Conceptual Framework 2.1. The Meaning of Dependent Capitalism Virtually all radical political economy analyses of underdevelopment in the less developed countries (LDCs) start off with the following basic theoretical
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