Development planning, structural heterogeneity and social policy in the Southern Cone (1960- 1975)

NICOLÁS DVOSKIN

Montevideo

Jornada; XV Jornadas de Investigación de la Asociación Uruguaya de Historia Económica; 2022

Universidad de la República y AUDHE

This paper analyzes the role of economic and social development ideas in Argentina, Brazil, Chile,and Uruguay during the 1960s and early-70s, emphasizing on the role of social issues within thedevelopment planning agenda. The paper’s theoretical standpoint is the recognition of an importantshift in the diagnosis of the Latin American economic backwardness around the mid-60s: from theunderdevelopment hypothesis to the structural heterogeneity hypothesis.After an introduction of the theoretical discussions, the paper analyzes different officialgovernmental documents from the four countries in order to find the role that social policy isexpected to play within the economic development agenda in each case. Similarities and differencesamong the neighbors are specified in order to identify this conceptual shift, defined boththeoretically and in the guidelines of public policy.Keywords: structural heterogeneity – economic development – social policy – Latin America –development planning