Dependency Under Challenge: The Political Economy of the Commonwealth Caribbean Edited by Anthony Payne and Paul Sutton Manchester University Press, 1984, 288 + xi pp.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230050212 |
| Author | J. D. Macarthur |
| Date | 01 April 1985 |
| Published date | 01 April 1985 |
180
Book
Reviews
inspiration and offered
a
radically different interpretation of the causes and characteristics of
underdevelopment.
By bringing together a selection of some
of
the most important writings by Marxian and
neo-Marxian thinkers on development issues, Alavia and Shanin’s collection provides a broad
and useful overview of this alternative approach. The leading thinkers in the field including
Amin, Baran, Cardoso, Emmanuel, Leys and others are represented and their writings are
cleverly juxtaposed against pointed excerpts from newspaper articles, novels and the speeches
of arch imperialists like Cecil Rhodes
to
illuminate the analyses of the academic contributors.
The book is the first of a new series edited by Shanin which will explore a variety of themes in
the sociology
of
developing societies and provide detailed insights
in
the major regions
of
the
developing world.
Although there are sociologists and other social scientists who will reject the paradigm
reflected in this book,
it
will have undoubted influence not only
in
the rarified academic world
but in the centres of policy-making at both the international and domestic levels where the
inadequacies
of
modernization theory has long been felt. Many of those concerned
with
planning for progressive change have become aware that global forces are as relevant
to
their
task as are local realities.
It
is a pity, therefore, that this collection does
not
address policy
issues directly. Its critical analysis
of
the dynamics
of
contemporary world development
would have been greatly enhanced by a consideration of
what
can be done.
JAMES
MIDGLEY
London
School
of
Economics
DEPENDENCY UNDER CHALLENGE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
OF
THE
COMMONWEALTH CARIBBEAN
Edited by Anthony Payne and Paul Sutton
Manchester University Press,
1984, 288
+
xi pp.
Dependency is a reality especially relevant to the Caribbean states, as well as a theoretical area
much discussed
in
that region. This collection of original papers describes experiences
of
Commonwealth Caribbean countries
in
their political and economic development during the
difficult
1970s,
especially after
1973.
With the single exception of oil-rich (and consequently
less dependent) Trinidad and Tobago, the papers describe the disappointments and failures
of
a decade which, at the national, regional and international levels, left these small
or
very small
states probably more dependent and risk-prone than when
it
began.
The ten papers in this collection are largely by well-known, authoritative authors, and are
arranged in three parts. Most interesting are the country case studies in the first section, which
describe political and economic developments in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and
Granada-a fair spread by any standards
of
approaches
to
social and political development.
Of course, the book predates the U.S. military intervention in Granada and the events that
immediately preceded it, and the paper on Grenada’s experiments has a more optimistic tone
than may now be thought appropriate. Three country papers concentrate on the stances
of
dominant individuals: Michael Manley, Eric Williams, Eric Gairy and Maurice Bishop, and
their personal roles in national and international events, referring more to political history
than to dependency. However, Clive Thomas’s piece
on
Guyana is a more detached political
economy study of the ‘co-operative socialism’ approach, which by all accounts served the
people of that country
so
badly.
The second part of the collection has two chapters on the attempts at regional level for co-
ordination of the industrial and agricultural policies and strategies of the Commonwealth
Caribbean states. High ideals and careful studies led to a plethora
of
regional meetings and
agencies, but very limited lasting achievements for economic co-ordination. The
1960s
and
1970s
were
not
the times in which to develop the joint approach that really offers most
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