CEIL   02670
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congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Title: The second development decade: ECLAC, ILO and ECOSOC economic development programmes for the 1970s.
Autor/es:
NICOLÁS DVOSKIN
Lugar:
Nueva York
Reunión:
Conferencia; 2019 History of Economics Society Conference; 2019
Institución organizadora:
History of Economics Society
Resumen:
The history of economic thought usually takes into account the great minds, but when it analyzes the thinking of policy makers or agencies -rather than thinkers- it usually focuses those that actually fulfilled their goals, or at least those that were able to pursue some policies. In this paper I analyze the history of a broken dream: ?the second development decade?. Since the end of the 1960s we can observe a shift in the way economists analyze the problem of underdevelopment: they tend to discard the modernization theories that suggested that underdevelopment was quite an easy issue regarding low workforce productivity and embrace new theories, which pay attention to structural heterogeneity, lack of integration and, most importantly, social issues.These new ideas will become the key framework of a worldwide consensus, which, perhaps, relies more on the policy-makers than on the textbooks, academic papers and university curricula. In this sense, the role played by the major international organisations regarding both academic analysis and policy recommendations is huge. So huge, that during the late 60s the concept of "second development decade" is born. The first decade -the 60s- consisted of the abandonment of the comparative-advantages theories and the adoption of modernization theories, which explained that an accelerated economic growth financed by foreign investment would be enough to solve every underdevelopment-related issue. The second decade -the 70s- would recognize the achievements of the first one, but it would also criticize its lack of social perspective. The second development decade would be the decade of not only economic but social development as well.In my PhD dissertation at the University of Buenos Aires I analyzed the economic ideas which sustained the debates regarding the Argentinean social security reforms during the second half of the 20th century. Without using the words ?second development decade?, among other things I recognized the previously exposed shift around the mid-60s, and an abrupt end of these debates around the mid-70s. My post-doc research project in Germany started with an attempt to compare this period with similar Latin American countries -initially, such as Brazil, Chile or Mexico-, but the archive work led me to realize that this agenda was rather international than Latin American, and that the international organizations were playing a huge role. Congresses, conferences, resolutions, economic policy guidelines: the major organizations, such as ECLAC, ILO and ECOSOC, were fully dedicated to these issues.However, during the mid-70s the world changed, and the second development decade was replaced by the neoliberal dreams. Thus, it ended up as nothing more than a broken dream. It happened in Latin America and it happened in the organizations? agenda too.In this paper I show some preliminary results of my post-doc research project, from a history of economic thought perspective: a study on the role of these agencies, its ideas and foundations, regarding the problems of underdevelopment towards this "second development decade".