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The political economy of development
This academic site promotes excellence in teaching and researching economics and development, and the advancing of describing, understanding, explaining and theorizing.
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The political economy of development

( Róbinson Rojas Sandford, Nov. 2003)

   "Political economy integrates anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, philosophy, sociology and sciences of nature," ( P. Bohmer ) providing building blocks for a methodology to understand social change and also supplying the analytical tools for making sense of contemporary public problems which relate not only to a variety of styles of development but also the survival of planet earth as an eco system capable of sustaining life as we know it. The Róbinson Rojas Archive seek to provide  access to all the knowledge required for the above purposes, which amounts to what I call the political economy of development.

  The Róbinson Rojas Archive introduce students and researchers to the political economy of the global system of nations and social classes, as a discipline dealing with relations of dependency, interdependency and domination between nations and social groups within and between  nations. Therefore, we are looking at a process, an historical process. Since the early 1950s until today two theoretical approaches have been utilised, on the one hand,  for those who oppose social emancipation and, on the other hand, for those who fight for achieving it. Modernisation theory by the former and dependency theory by the latter. The reader will find material on those theories here. Historical analysis requires an assessment of the effects of colonisation, decolonisation, neo-colonisation and globalisation on the styles of development in Asian, African and Latin American societies as a first approach to understand, for instance, the features of the contemporary imperialism led by  the economic and political ruling elites in United States of America. The Róbinson Rojas Archive, The Project for the First People's Century and Puro Chile. The memory of the people, provide literature on that.

  The Róbinson Rojas Archive, The Project for the First People's Century and Puro Chile. The memory of the people aim to:
  • develop interest in the analysis of international economics as a discipline dealing with the economic, political and cultural relations of power and dominance between nations.
  • support the study of  the complexities of economic relations  between nations being affected by, and in turn influencing, the political, social, cultural and military relations between those nations, and how economic interdependence/dependence is affected by, and in turn influences, the internal political, social, cultural and military structures of nations. The complex whole creating class structures, class antagonisms, and class alliances which have an international feature, especially in the last fifty years or so.
  • further a comparative analysis of contemporary relations between industrialised societies and non-industrialised societies.
  • contribute to appreciating  the different ways in which some social groups in the so-called developing societies have attempted to promote economic and social development as  constrained both by the world economy and their internal social structure.
  • further the analysis of  the connections between international economic and political domination and processes of gender, race, religion, cultural and income differentiation, both among and within countries.
  • help in understanding  the correlation between styles of industrialisation, environmental destruction, and wealth and poverty creation.
  • provide an analytical framework for creating alternative models of development aiming at total social emancipation without endangering the survival of planet earth.
  • create awareness of that ethics, development and economics are three aspects of a unique process of improving living conditions of life on planet earth, and that the most dramatic socio, economic and environmental problems are directly related to the absence of ethics in capitalist economic theories and development theories.

   We seek helping to our readers/students

to  analyse the most fundamental political, social and economic issues facing contemporary developing and developed societies;

to create methodologies to  analyse  socially stratified  societies, both "developed" and "developing", whose structures "are based neither on egalitarian relationships nor on collaborative patterns of social organization" (1);

to explain the exploitative processes "through which these social structures are maintained" (which require the analysis of "the system of production and the institutions of appropriation, that is, the socio-economic base of society", and the analysis "of the mechanisms and processes of domination through which existing structures are maintained", therefore we must focus on the analysis of the mechanism of self-perpetuation and on "the possibilities of change" (1);

to understand that "the relationship between external and internal forces" form "a complex whole whose structural links are not based on mere external forms of exploitation and coercion, but are rooted in coincidences of interests between local dominant classes and international ones, and, on the other side, are challenged by local dominated groups and classes" (2);

to understand the relationships between environment and development, world economic system and development, capitalism and poverty, neoliberalism and imperialism, capitalism and environmental damage, capitalism and blockages to human development, etc.;

to develop a critical appraisal of the role played by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the governments of the industrialised countries in maintaining a globalised economy to meet the needs of transnational corporations economy; and eventually

to  analyse the role played by internal socio-economic forces and external socio-economic forces in the styles of development followed by Asia, Africa and Latin America, particularly after the 1950s.

About the role of the state

   The Róbinson Rojas Archive, The Project for the First People's Century and Puro Chile. The memory of the people  provide the reader with literature on the description, understanding and explaining of the central role of the state in the process of development, its relation with civil society, and especially its articulation with the global economy as dominated by international capital, particularly transnational corporations supported by their home countries' states. The literature attempts to analyse the different styles of development based upon the triple alliance between the state, domestic capitalist class and international capitalist class, and then unfold  the political economy of development addressing the debate about globalisation, sustainability, poverty, development, neo-colonisation and imperialism.

   Here the reader will be able to study  the relationship between development strategies, political forms and theories and practices on the role of the state in economic, political and social change  both in industrialized countries and developing societies.

  The Róbinson Rojas Archive, The Project for the First People's Century, and Puro Chile. The Memory of the People attempt:

  • To provide a basic understanding of major theoretical perspectives on the state, exploring whether there is a relationship between forms of State and forms of development, and political implications of social change during development processes.
  • To evaluate current theoretical debates within the field of state and economic growth studies and their relevance to developing societies.
  • To understand the dynamic of the internationalization of capitalism as a regulated process, in which, historically, the nation state has set the context in which the interdependence of national and international economic activities could be regulated, having a major role in the creation of political and economic empires.
  • To evaluate how nation states, as containers of specific political, economic, social, cultural, and institutional attributes, have constantly influenced the pace and nature of international economic activity, with governments modifying, creating or destroying comparative and competitive advantage, creating in the process the world division between dominant economies and dominated economies.

The political economy of research methodology for development studies

   We  encourage students of development to think for themselves and to question  READY-MADE ASSUMPTIONS, and to become aware that research is a live thing, a first-person business that brings with it new knowledge. Thus, we encourage them to consider  that research methods is not about "instruments" but about the creation and use of instruments with an ideological aim.

   Contemporary research on development is focused on discrete but interrelated development issues at the micro and macro level (i.e., sustainability, globalization, poverty reduction, unequal social relations, structural adjustment, environmental protection, human development, participation, institutional development, cultural domination), which calls for a multidisciplinary perspective leading to the creation of interdisciplinary methods of interpretation and intervention as a complement to the methodologies applied by the individual disciplines involved.

   As defined elsewhere, research methods have been conceptualized as tools to be used for answering specific questions and for solving different scientific or practical problems. Thus, it is the substance of the matter -the questions to be answered- that must guide the selection of methods, not vice versa. From the above is easy to see that students should be trained in methodology, techniques and use of tools which enable them to undertake further research (doctoral) and/or practical research with participatory purposes (which is the rationale behind NGOs and their understanding of what action research is).

   Thus, methodological inventions are required to make multidisciplinary approaches applicable. The objective is to familiarize students/ researchers with the point of view that contemporary issues (as listed above) can be addressed at the micro level, and, in particular cases, linked with the macro level, in order to define what is the problem, whose problem it is, how to solve it, and why it must be solved.

   The above is achieved through basic  training in macroeconomics (with emphasis on the dynamic of international trade), the philosophy of the social sciences ( including the logic of scientific methods; objectivity and subjectivity in social sciences and critiques of traditional social science approaches), and political economy in general.

   Because our research methods approach is interdisciplinary, the techniques become also interdisciplinary techniques for analysis (i.e. computer-based data processing, statistical methods -both qualitative and quantitative, transforming qualitative information into qualitative data, graphical methods -with the purpose of training  students in visual analysis of patterns- plots, picture analysis, etc.)

   By and large, students should be challenged to reconsider their role as traditional researchers and take advantage of the scope for critical studies. Moreover, our interdisciplinary approach to issues and techniques challenge  students to participate in a process to rescue development research from a situation were development studies have been concerned almost totally with how international agencies can and should encourage development, and very little with the empirical study of social change as taking place in a global environment in which the policy framework at the macro (international) level reduces the scope for manoeuvre at the micro (national) level.

   In the process of addressing issues and techniques to analyse the issues, good teaching should aim to produce in seminars and lectures high quality analysis, having in mind that "researchers should analyze the world as they perceive it to be, untainted by how they would like it to be...", with an emphasis on the dynamics of development ( as a process of social change ), and international development cooperation ( as a process of reducing forced inequalities ).

  Quoting Pete Bohmer, we can say that research methodology for development   must have in mind that political economy helps to "understanding the modern world and providing tools for analyzing contemporary public problems. It focuses upon problems related to class, race and gender - globally, nationally and locally. Political Economy seeks to study how such problems interweave and overlap, how they evolved, how they are understood, how and why certain decisions are made about them, and how these issues impact the quality of human life. At its best, Political Economy provides the interdisciplinary tools needed to analyze strategies for social change, historically and in the present, and explore alternatives to the current global system. Major social problems are deeply grounded in theories and history of cultural, philosophical, social, economic and political practice. Their understanding involves exploring basic analytic concepts and values (freedom, equality, justice and democracy) and their meanings today. Political Economy looks at societies as dynamic and ever-changing systems, comparing them in different countries and cultures and evaluating their impacts on the everyday lives of all affected people". (See "Political Economy Courses taught by Pete Bohmer", http://members.tripod.com/~political_economy/)

The problem of public action and social emancipation

  In june 2003 I wrote in
Project for the First People's Century: "this section in PFPC publishes useful texts dealing with strategies and tactics needed to stop US imperialism, encircle it, and eventually dismantling it, to make possible the building of more human societies. Thus, this section will deal with defining targets and activities, pinpointing the main economic and social forces behind US imperialism and its vassal states, and from there drawing a blueprint to transit to the First People's Century".   The main tenets of this statement is that there is a need for developing public action, organise social movements to block the efforts of those who attempt to colonise the world, and then unfold, step by step the basis for social emancipation. We believe that analysing the political economy of development studies is a way to reach a solid formulation of what forms public action should take and what should be the main aims of social emancipation.

   Take public action at a first level of description: it seems to us that there are three path towards a FPC, all of them being transited by members of the civil society more or less at the same time.

  • Path One: public action in the heart of the empire which is United States of America;
  • Path Two: public action in the heart of the industrialized countries where transnational corporation and their political think tanks have created a spider web of vested interests (economic and political) in partnership with the US transnational corporations as a core;
  • Path Three: Public action in the neo-colonized societies in  Asia, Africa and Latin America and the periphery of Western Europe (which includes former bureaucratic socialist countries)

  From the above it follows  that public action must be implemented by each local civil society, even when international coordination is required to maximise political efficiency. Here we have a form of dynamic instance of local-global. Of course, public action is the outcome of informed decisions based on global-local knowledge. This global-local knowledge is within reach of millions of indivual through web sites like ours. This global-local knowledge give us a clearer picture of who are the ones who oppose social emancipation both within each nation and also as an international society of owners of transnational capital gathered around the economic, political and social elites in the USA, and protected by its military might.

  Social emancipation, therefore, will unfold its most important features if we have in mind what are the economic, political, social and cultural barriers to it at the beginning of the 21st century. Many researchers are trying to contribute to the clarification of the notion of social emancipation. Some of them, in the University of Coimbra, Portugal, implemented a research from 1999 to 2001. They wrote:

"The objective of this research project is twofold: to contribute to the reinvention of social emancipation; to contribute to the renovation of the social sciences.

  • 1 - The paradigm of social emancipation developed by western modernity is undergoing a deep and final crisis. Social emancipation must, therefore, be reinvented. It must be understood as a form of counter-hegemonic globalization relying on local-global linkages and alliances among social groups around the world which go on resisting social exclusion, exploitation and oppression caused by hegemonic neoliberal globalization. Such struggles result in the development of alternatives to the exclusionary and monolithic logic of global capitalism, that is to say,
    a) spaces of democratic participation,
    b) non-capitalistic production of goods and services,
    c) creation of emancipatory knowledges,
    d) post-colonial cultural exchanges,
    e) new international solidarities.
  • 2 - The social sciences produced in the core countries from the 19th century onwards have exhausted their capacity for renovation and innovation. As a result, they have ceased to be the conscience of progressive social transformation to become devices of legitimation, if not consecration, of the status quo and the social injustices it reproduces.
      By creating a network among a considerable number of social scientists working in countries which have been peripheral to the production of hegemonic social scientific knowledge, this project aims at favoring the emergence of a scientific community determined to develop
    a) new paradigms of social knowledge,
    b) relations among different types of knowledge, and
    c) engagement between knowledges and social action.
    In each countries the following themes were dealt with:
    • Participatory democracy
    • Alternative production systems
    • Emancipatory multiculturalism, justices and citizenships
    • Biodiversity, rival knowledges and intellectual property rights
    • New labor internationalism

  To underline the objective of promoting alternative knowledges and rival knowledges, the project includes The Voices of the World. It consists of in-depth interviews of activists and leaders of local initiatives or social movements, not only to collect their views and evaluations about their own social practice, but also to glimpse at their wisdom about the world, society and nature, past and future."

  It seem to us that "local initiative or social movements" are the richest source of experience to unfold a local-global transit to social emancipation and then, of course, the creation of a human society able to implement human development in an environmentally sustainable manner. By then, the practice of the political economy of development will finally blossom. We are trying to contribute to that.

* Dr. Peter Bohmer, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, U.S.A., 1996
(1) and (2) H. Cardoso and E. Faletto, "Dependencia and Desarrollo en América Latina", Ediciones Siglo XXI, 1969, in "Preface to the English Edition", University of California Press, 1979, pp. xv and xvi

(Róbinson Rojas Sandford, November 2003)

Note: The Motivation and Declaration of Principles of our Project for the First People's Century could be considered as a proto-alternative model for social emancipation. Also, the Chilean Popular Unity Political Programme constitute a proto-alternative model for social emancipation. I do suggest reading both.

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About us

Created and managed by Dr. Róbinson Rojas, The Róbinson Rojas Archive is an academic site promoting excellence in teaching and researching economics and development, and the advancing of describing, understanding, explaining and theorizing.
It has a dual purpose:
a) to publish electronic versions of books, papers, notes and statistical and analytical material related to economics and development studies, and
b) to facilitate easy access to major sources of academic information for development studies, and related disciplines.
______________________

The Róbinson Rojas Archive belongs to Dr. Róbinson Rojas Sandford, it does not have any relation with any university, it does not receive any support from any university. Dr. Róbinson Rojas Sandford is responsible only for the material, teaching and learning resources authored by him.

______________________
The Róbinson Rojas Archive is authorized to reproduce work published by, among others, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, and Finance and Development (edited by the International Monetary Fund), an official Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library member ,
an official Biz/Ed(University of Bristol, U.K.) member, ...

The Róbinson Rojas Archive have been included in scores of academic organizations and resources  located, among others, in the following  universities and colleges:
Universidad de La Habana,
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University of Bristol,
The Australian National University,
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Virginia Wesleyan College,
State University of New York,
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Université de Ličge
Ankara Universitesi
Humboldt-Universitĺt zu Berlin
University of Utah
University of London
University of Essex
University College St. Martin
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Some of the above projects are funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council (E.S.R.C.),
Electronic Libraries Programme (eLIB),
The European Commission (DESIRE Project), in the U.K., and the
US National Science Foundation in the United States.

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RRojas Databank is listed in the Biz/ed Internet Resources Catalogue, which is published by the Institute for Learning and Research Technology -University of Bristol, as an academic site with expertise in economic development and growth, with the following entry:

"Published and maintained by Dr. Robinson Rojas, this site contains substantial "information about economic and development issues in Chile, People's "Republic of China, Taiwan, Latin America, South-East and East Asia. The "archive contains papers and documents by the author and other writers, many "of which are full text. Teaching materials are also made available and cover a "wide range of economic and development topics, including two courses run for "the UK's Open University. The Statistics for Developing Countries section "contains statistics for various economic indicators distilled from data providers "such as the OECD and the Office for National Statistics (UK). There is also a "Glossaries section which is a rich resource covering microeconomics and the "world economy as well as development terms. Links to relevant institutions are "also available. "Keywords: development, microeconomics, economy, statistics, data"

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Listed in The Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library, which is published by the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia in conjunction with 39 other organizations. The official entry reads as follows:

"Name: RRojas Databank
"Institution: RRojas Research Unit, United Kingdom
"Note: An academic site for research on South East Asia and Latin America. "The main expertise is on China, Indonesia, and Chile. The site offers statistical "resources (on the political economy of development studies -ed.), analytical "research, papers, notes, lecture notes and books, authored by "Dr. Robinson Rojas and others. This academic site is part of "Biz/Ed managed by the University of Bristol, UK.
"Resource type (news - document - study - corporate info - online guide): STUDY
"Research usefulness (essential - v. useful - useful - interesting - marginal): ESSENTIAL ."

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Listed in The Scout Report for Social Sciences, run by the University of Wisconsin-Madison under a grant from the US National Science Foundation, the academic site is described as follows:

"RRojas Databank
"Created an maintained by Dr. Robinson Rojas, this content-rich site on "economic development and growth is also part of the Biz/Ed Internet "Resources Catalogue. In the Statistics for Developing Countries section, "users will find data for various economic indicators compiled from various "official data providers. In addition, the site offers numerous full text "papers by the site's author and others, as well as teaching resources, "related links, and a useful Glossaries section covering microeconomics, "the world economy, and development terms.(MD)"

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Listed in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, with the following entry:

"RRojas Databank
"http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/
"One of the most comprehensive sites on the Web dealing with development "and economic globalization.  Robinson Rojas (many of whose writings "are included on the site) has compiled an impressive list of articles "and links relating to economic development.  It is also remarkably "well-maintained.  There is also an impressive array of curriculum "material,including lecture notes, some of it used in Robinson's Open "University courses. A treasure trove of material. For starters, check out "some of the material in the World Investment Report 1998."


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The Róbinson Rojas Archive is an academic organization dedicated to gather, process and analyze information under the direction of  Róbinson Rojas Sandford.  It includes RRojas Research Unit, RRojas Databank, Project for the Firts People's Century, and Puro Chile. The memory of the people.
This site also contains books, parts of books, papers, parts of papers, notes and lecture notes published and unpublished by  R. Rojas.
Los archivos de Róbinson Rojas es una organización académica para reunir, procesar y analizar información bajo la dirección de   Róbinson Rojas Sandford.  Está compuesta del Centro de Investigación RRojas,  El Banco de Datos RRojas, Proyecto para el Primer Siglo Popular, y Puro Chile. La memoria del pueblo.
Este sitio contiene libros, secciones de libros, ensayos, secciones de ensayos, notas y notas de cátedra publicados y no publicados de R.  Rojas.
Les archives de Róbinson Rojas est une organisation scientifique dédiée a la recherche, au traitement et a l'analyse de données sous la direction de  Róbinson Rojas Sandford. Elle est composée de L'unité de recherche RRojas, La Banque de données RRojas, Projet por le Premier Siecle Populaire, et Puro Chile. La mémoire du peuple
Ce site contient aussi des livres, des extraits de livres, des essais, des extraits d'essais, des notes et des notes concernant des cours magistraux publiés ou non par R. Rojas.

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