This classic work remains one of the most incisive contributions to
dependency theory in the Latin American context. While agreeing with
other dependency theorists that underdevelopment on the Latin America
periphery was structurally connected to the accumulation of capital in
the advanced economies at the core of the global capitalist system,
Furtado went further and argued that the very idea of development in the
periphery is a myth, deceiving countries into focusing on narrow
economic factors such as the rate of investment and the volume of
exports to the detriment of their human well-being. Moreover, the costs
of development in terms of environmental destruction would be
catastrophic for the planet: the idea that the poor in Latin America and
elsewhere might someday enjoy the livelihoods of today's rich people is
unrealizable in practice, and any attempt to generalize the lifestyles
of the world's well-off would lead to the collapse of civilization.
Adhering to the ideas of development and progress is not only
misleading: it is also a form of cultural domination that stifles
creativity and blocks the imagination of alternative life forms that
would be better aligned to the conditions of life in Latin America and
elsewhere.
This prescient analysis of economic development and underdevelopment in
Latin America retains its relevance today and will be of interest to
anyone concerned with issues of political economy and culture in the
Global South, as well as students and scholars in political economy,
development studies, Latin American Studies and critical theory.
