Working Papers #41 - 50Click Working Paper title to download (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). Please note, not all papers are available for download at this time. Rural Class Structure in Mexico: New Developments, New PerspectivesMaría de los Angeles Crummett Working Paper #41 - May 1985 María de los Angeles Crummett received her Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in 1984. During 1984-1985 she was a Faculty Fellow of the Kellogg Institute and an Assistant Faculty Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. The author wishes to thank Ronald Berg and Carmen Diana Deere for their many useful comments on an earlier version of this paper and Caroline Domingo for her editorial assistance. Research on this paper was supported by grants from the Social Science Research Council, the Inter-American Foundation, and the Business and Professional Women's Foundation. Abstract This paper examines a number of criteria by which to categorize rural households into distinct socioeconomic classes. Based on the author's sample survey of 211 households in three agricultural regions of the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, the study argues that an analysis of rural class structure must focus not only on access to the means of production and the extent of participation in the labor market but also on internal structural features of domestic units such as household size, generational composition, and the sex and age division of labor. Statistical tests strongly support the thesis that considerations of household structure and organization sharpen and enrich the concept of class. The results also define and distinguish three main class types in the survey regions-commercial, subsistence, and landless households. Resumen Este trabajo analiza un conjunto de criterios que permiten llegar a una clasificación de tipos de productores agrícolas. Basado en una encuesta de 211 unidades de producción en tres regiones rurales del Estado de Aguascalientes, Mexico, el trabajo muestra que un analisis de clase debe centrarse, tanto en la posesión de los medios de producción y en el grado de participación en el mercado de trabajo, como en la estructura interna de la unidad incluyendo el tamaño de ella, la composición generacional y la división de trabajo por sexo y edad. Los resultos estadísticos apoyan la tesis de que la incorporación de variables referidas a la organización y estructura de la unidad facilitan y enriquecen la explicación sobre el concepto de clase. Los resultados también permiten definir y distinguir tres principales clases en las regiones de la encuesta: los productores comerciales, los productores de subsistencia y los trabajadores sin tierra. (49 pages)
Three Rationalities in Development DecisionsDenis Goulet Working Paper #42 - June 1985 Denis Goulet is O'Neill Professor in Education for Justice and a member of the Department of Economics and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He holds Master's degrees in Philosophy (1956) and Social Planning (1960), and a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (1963). He has held visiting professorships in interdisciplinary studies on the ethics of development at the University of Regina (Canada), IRFED (France), the University of Pernambuco (Brazil), Indiana University and the University of California (USA). He is the author of numerous books and professional articles including: Etica do Desenvolvimento (São Paulo: Livraria Duas Cidades, 1966), The Cruel Choice (New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1971. Reissued 1985 by University Press of America [New York]), A New Moral Order (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1974), The Uncertain Promise: Value Conflicts in Technology Transfer (New York: IDOC/North America, 1977), Mexico: Development Strategies for the Future (University of Notre Dame Press, 1983). This paper grows out of current research on "Incentive Systems as Policy Instruments for Equitable Development." Abstract Development performance is, in most cases, disappointing. Numerous obstacles, domestic and international, impede success. This paper argues that, in addition to these, bad development decision-making contributes to failure. The Author analyzes how three distinct rationalities, or basic approaches to logic, converge in decision-making arenas. These are technological, political, and ethical rationality. Each has a distinctive goal and a peculiar animating spirit or basic procedure. Problems arise because each rationality approaches the other two in reductionist fashion, seeking to impose its view of goals and procedures on the decision-making process. The result is technically sound decisions which are politically unfeasible or morally unacceptable or, in other cases, ethically sound choices which are technically inefficient or politically impossible, or again, politically sound decisions which sin on ethical or technical grounds. After analyzing the three rationalities, the Author illustrates their workings in three concrete sectors of contemporary Brazilian development strategy: a dam construction project in the impoverished Northeast region, a new approach to municipal government in greater São Paulo, and an ambitious program of incentives aimed at diversifying agricultural production in the Northeast. The conclusion reached is that a new model of mutually respectful-and not reductionist-dialogue among the three rationalities is needed in arenas of developmental decision-making. Sumario As realizações, em materia de desenvolvimento, são quase sempre decepcionantes. Existem um sem número de obstáculos que impedem o êxito. O argumento do presente artigo é que, além dêstes obstáculos, as más decisões contribuem para o fracasso. O autor analisa como três racionalidades distintas, ou seja, três padrões de lógica, convergem para o campo da tomada de decisão. São elas: a racionalidade tecnológica, política, e ética. Cada uma tem um objetivo particular e um espírito animador ou um procedimento próprio. Problemas surgem porque cada racionalidade aborda as outras duas de maneira reducionista; isto é, cada racionalidade tenta impôr sua visão dos objetivos e seu espírito, no proceso de decisão. O resultado, então, é uma decisão que, se é bôa no plano técnico, é falha, política ou eticamente falando; se aceitável moralmente, é deficiente na dimensão política ou técnica; ou, finalmente, se politicamente válida, é falha do lado técnico ou ético. Após analisar as três racionalidades, o autor ilustra sua operação em três setores concretos da atual estrategia brasileira de desenvolvimento. Os setores abordados são: a construção da represa do rio São Francisco em Itaparica, a experiência de governo municipal em Diadema, no grande São Paulo, e o programa de novos incentivos ligados ao Projeto Nordeste e destinado a diversificar a agricultura naquela região. A conclusão a qual chega o autor é que um novo modelo de diálogo interrelacionado, e não reducionista, é necesário para que as três racionalidades produzam bôas decisões no setor de desenvolvimento. (34 pages)
Latin American Structuralism: A Methodological PerspectiveKenneth P. Jameson Working Paper 43 - July 1985 Kenneth Jameson is Faculty Fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. His publications in the area of economic methodology include An Inquiry Into the Poverty of Economics and Directions in Economic Development. The author wishes to thank colleagues David Ruccio, René Cortázar, Alejandro Foxley, Linda Hudgins and Charles Wilber for their valuable comments, though they bear no responsibility for remaining problems. Abstract Latin American structuralism has played a central role in the debates on economic development theory and policy since the 1950s. The career of Raúl Prebisch has mirrored the trajectory of structuralism and can provide it an historical context. After noting the importance of structuralism, the article isolates its main tenets. It then places Latin American structuralism within the methodological tradition of structuralism which includes writers such as Piaget, Levi-Strauss and Chomsky in other disciplines. Methodologically the key to the success of Latin American structuralism is its ability to isolate a deep structure of the international economy and to center its analysis around it. The understanding of the domestic economy and of shorter-run policy problems is less satisfactory. After a brief eclipse during the late 1970s, Latin American structuralism is currently a vital mode of understanding development problems, in this case through its marriage with a more formal, mathematical approach originating in the U.S. Resumen Desde la década del '50 el estructuralismo latinoamericano ha desempeñado un rol central en los debates sobre política y teoría del desarrollo económico. Las obras de Raúl Prebisch no sólo reflejan la trayectoría del estructuralismo, sino que a la vez proporcionan el contexto histórico para analizarlo. Después de señalar la importancia del estructuralismo latinoamericano, este estudio destaca sus componentes claves, situándolo en la tradición metodológica de escritores como Piaget, Levi-Strauss y Chomsky en otras diciplinas. Metodológicamente, el éxito del estructualismo latinoamericano se basa en la capacidad de aislar los componentes estructurales de la economía internacional para luego centrar su análisis en torno a ellos. Sin embargo, su capacidad de entender los problemas asociados a las economías domésticas y a las políticas económicas de corto plazo es menos satisfactoría. Después de un breve silencio a fines de la década del '70, el estructuralismo latinoamericano ofrece nuevamente una manera fundamental para comprender los problemas del desarrollo, esta vez, ligándose y utilizando los aportes más modelísticos y formales originados en Estados Unidos. (21 pages)
Peasants, Pedagogy, Productivity-ParaguayKenneth P. Jameson Working Paper 44 - July 1985 Kenneth Jameson is Faculty Fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. This paper is part of a cross-country study of rural productivity and education and has also been part of a collaboration with the ECIEL study on the same topic. Abstract An outstanding characteristic of development efforts in Latin America since the 1950s has been the extension of educational activities to new sectors of the population, in particular to the rural zones. It is unclear what effect these efforts have had, for even from a neo-classical perspective, the empirical evidence on the effect of educational attainment is at best ambiguous. Paraguay participated in this expansion of education. This paper examines the evidence of its effect in the rural areas, relying primarily upon an extensive small farm survey from the eastern region of Paraguay. The problem of education and rural development is initially placed in the context of three competing views: the neo-classical which sees its effect through increased farm productivity; the Chayanovian which would see education as peripheral to peasant agriculture; and the social differentiation perspective which would see its contribution in terms of increasing social differentiation in the country. The empirical results find support for the significance of education in rural Paraguay. It does have a small but significant effect on farm productivity, and more importantly it does contribute to social differentiation in the country. These conclusions are made more salient by the present fiscal pressures on Latin American countries which imply a real reduction in education expenditures for most of them. Resumen Una de las caracteristicas más importantes del desarrollo económico Latinoamericano desde las década de los cincuenta, ha sido la progresiva incorporación al proceso educacional de nuevos segmentos poblacionales y en particular de las zonas rurales. Sin embargo, los efectos de estos esfuerzos no son claros. La evidencia empirica que se desprende de los estudios realizados desde una perspectiva neoclásica, demuestra que los beneficios obtenidos del aumento de la educación son ambiguos. Paraguay ha participado del proceso de desarrollo educacional. Este estudio examina los efectos de este proceso en las areas rurales, y se basa principalmente en encuestas realizadas a pequeños predios de la región del este del Paraguay. La relación entre el problema educacional y el desarrollo rural se situa en el contexto de tres visiones alternativas: la neoclásica, que entiende sus efectos a través de aumentos en la productividad agricola; la Chayanovian, que ve a la educación como un elemento periférico al campesinado rural y la perpectiva de diferenciación social, que entiende que la educación contribuye a aumentar la diferenciación social en el pais. Los resultados empíricos avalan la importancia de la educación en las zonas rurales del Paraguay. Esta tiene un pequeño pero estadísticamente significativo efecto en la productividad agricola y más importante aun, contribuye a aumentar la diferenciación social de las zonas rurales, especialmente entre aquellos con más de seis años de educación. Estas conclusiones son de especial relevancia cuando se constatan las presiones que actualmente se ejercen sobre el persupuesto fiscal en los paises Latinoamericanos, lo que implica una reducción del gasto real en educación en la mayoria de estos paises. (20 pages)
Industrialization, Migration and the Informal Sector in ManausLeo Despres Working Paper 45 - July 1985 Leo Despres is a Fellow of the Kellogg Institute and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. He has held teaching posts at Ohio Wesleyan, Washington University (St. Louis) and Case Western University. His major research projects include culture change and power structure in a Midwestern community; national politics in Guyana; and studies on ethnicity in Guyana and the West Indies. Among his major publications are Cultural Pluralism and Nationalist Politics in British Guiana and Ethnicity and Resource Competition in Plural Societies. The data presented here were collected during the course of fieldwork conducted between June and December 1984, in respect to industrialization and the formation of working class culture in Manaus, Brazil. This research was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BNS 83, 17543). The author wishes to express his gratitude to the Instituto Universitario de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro for its assistance in facilitating the research. He is also extremely grateful to Rosalvo Machado Bentes and his colleagues at the Núcleo de Altos Estudos Amazônicos, Universidade Federal do Pará, and at the Universidade Federal do Amazonas, for making available a portion of the data collected by Professor Bentes in his study of migration to Manaus. He also wants to thank Drs. Regis S. De Castro Andrade, Paulo J. Krischke, and others of the Central de Estudos de Cultura Contemporanea in São Paulo, Dra. Lorissa Lomnitz (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Diana De Treville (University of Notre Dame) and members of the Kellogg Institute for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Abstract Through the institution of the Free Trade Zone and a strong program of fiscal incentives, the Brazilian government has stimulated significant urban and industrial growth in Manaus, a port city in the Central Amazon. As a result of this "development program," Manaus' economy now combines more traditional with more contemporary forms of capitalist organization. A preliminary analysis of field data collected in 1984 suggests that the productive regimes which attach to the more traditional forms of capitalist organization allocate a higher value to labor than those that attach to the modern, so-called high-tech, sectors of the economy. Thus, with industrial development, Manaus has witnessed a significant growth of the informal sectors of the economy. Structurally, however, the formal and the informal sectors are interdependent. The economic well-being of workers in the informal sector is as dependent upon the low wages paid to workers in the formal sector as are the industries of the latter dependent upon the cheap sources of consumption goods which the informal sector provides, in order to continue to pay low wages to the workers they employ. These data lend support to those theorists who have argued that the formal/informal dichotomy tends to obscure the systemic structural features of developmental change. In respect to labor and households as economic units, these data also suggest perhaps that a theory which conceptualizes survival strategies as constrained decisions among a relatively wide variety of alternative possibilities in different economic sectors may offer conceptual advantages. Such a theory would need to acknowledge the possibility of situations in which formal sector employment in "high-tech" industries is not necessarily preferred to non-industrial employment. Resumo Através da instituição de Zona Franca e de intenso programa de incentivos fiscais, o governo brasileiro estimulou significativo crescimento urbano e industrial em Manaus, uma cidade portuária da Amazônia central. Como resultado desse "programa de desenvolvimento," a economia de Manaus, atualmente, combina formas de organização capitalista tradicionais com as mais contemproáneas. A análise preliminar dos dados de campo, coletados em 1984, sugere que: em termos de setores de economia, os regimes productivos ligados a formas mais tradicionais de organização capitalista, atribuem maior valor ao trabalho do que àqueles regimes mais modernos, também chamados de alta-tecnologia ("hi-tech"). Assim, com o desenvolvimento industrial, Manaus testemunhou acentuado crescimento dos setores informais da economia. Porém, os setores formal e informal são estruturalmente interdependentes. O bem-estar econômico dos trabalhadores do setor informal é tão dependente dos baixos salários pagos aos trabalhadores pelo setor formal, quanto são as indústrias deste setor dependentes de fontes baratas de bens de consumo, fornecidas pelo setor informal, a fim de que tais indústrias continuem a pagar baixos salários a seus empregados. Esso dados conferem apoio àqueles teóricos que sustentam que a dicotomia formal-informal tende a obscurecer os contornos sistemático-estruturais da mudança provocada pelo desenvolvimento. Quanto a trabalho e família como unidades eonônomicas, os dados também sugere que, a teoria que concebe as estratégias de sobrevência como sujeitas à tomada de decisões, entre uma relativamente vasta gama de possíveis alternativas, em diferentes setores da economia, talvez fique em posição de vantagem. Tal teoria necessitaria conhecer a possibliladade de situações em que o emprego no setor formal, em indústrias de alta tecnologia não é necessariamente preferido o emprego não-industrial. (65 pages)
Democracy and PropertyJoseph Ramos Working Paper # 46 - November 1985 Joseph Ramos is an economist (Ph.D. Columbia 1968) with 17 years of teaching and consulting experience in Latin America. He is currently with the United Nation's ECLA in Santiago, Chile. His work has generally been in macroeconomics (employment, stabilization and adjustment policies) and he also has a long-standing interest in Catholic social teaching. His latest publication was a book published by ECLA entitled Estabilización y líberalización económica en el Cono Sur (UN, 1984, Santiago). During the Spring semester, 1985, Dr. Ramos was a Faculty Fellow of the Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame. Abstract This paper examines the relations between democracy and property in the context of less developed countries, with special reference to Chile. Starting from the premise that there is an essential distinction between the legitimacy of the institution of private property and the legitimacy of its present distribution, the author argues that property ownership is only one of the sources of power in society and, moreover, that highly concentrated distributions of wealth are due to historical circumstances rather than intrinsic to the nature of property itself. The paper's main contention is that an economic system based on the market, with widely diffused private property, is the economic structure most in accord with a pluralistic democracy. Resumen Este ensayo examina las relaciones entre la democracia y la propiedad en el contexto de los países menos desarrollados, con especial referencia a Chile. Partiendo de la premisa que hay una distinción esencial entre la legitimidad de la institución de la propiedad privada y la legitimidad de su distribución presente, el autor plantea que la posesión de propiedad es sólo una de las fuentes de poder en la sociedad y por lo tanto que las distribuciones de riqueza altamente concentradas se deben a circunstancias históricas y no a la naturaleza intrínsica de la propiedad. El argumento principal del ensayo es que un sistema económico basado en el mercado, con propiedad privada ampliamente difusa, es la estructura económica más en acuerdo con una democracia pluralista. (47 pages)
Iglesia Peruana: Cambio y Continuidad Naturaleza y Sentido de Su TransformacionCatalina Romero Working Paper 47 - November 1985 Catalina Romero de Iguiñiz is a research scholar at the Centro de Estudios Bartolomé de las Casas and Professor of Social Science at the Universidad Católica del Perú. During the Spring semester, 1983 she was a Fellow of the Kellogg Institute and a Visiting Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Notre Dame. Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the changes the Peruvian Catholic Church has undergone in the last three decades. It shows how the Peruvian Church has changed its social practices and its vision of social reality, leading to new pastoral practices and theological conceptions. The first part of the paper briefly traces three main periods of change since the l950s, then discusses the current debate on liberation theology. The second part analyzes the meaning of these developments, arguing that they must be understood as a profound change in the way the Church understands its mission. The third and final part discusses three of the most important elements of change: base communities, theology, and the institution's decentralization. Resumen Este trabajo presenta un análisis de la Iglesia Católica en la sociedad peruana en las últimas tres décadas en que se ha convertido en un factor fundamental del cambio social y elemento de identidad cultural. La autora hace énfasis en el análisis de los cambios internos en la sociedad e Iglesia peruana para explicar la radicalidad, naturaleza y consecuencias del cambio. La primera parte del trabajo sitúa la naturaleza de los cambios de la Iglesia desde l950 como resultado de la incorporación en la pastoral y en la teología de una práctica social y un cambio en la visión cristiana de la realidad social. Luego analiza la naturaleza y el sentido de los cambios ocurridos y termina señalando: las comunidades cristianas, la teología y el marco de apertura institucional para acoger las novedades, como los tres factores que han determinado el cambio. (38 pages)
From Catholic Action to Liberation Theology: The Historical Process of the Laity in Latin America in the Twentieth CenturyAna María Bidegain Working Paper #48 - November 1985 Ana María Bidegain, Assistant Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, is Co-ordinator of the Colombia-Venezuela area of the Comisión de Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina (CEHILA). She is the author of Nacionalismo, militarismo y dominación en América Latina (Bogotá 1983), Iglesia, pueblo y política (Bogotá 1985), and Así actuaron los cristianos en la historia de América Latina (Botogá 1985). She was a Fellow at the Kellogg Institute in the Spring 1985 Semester. Abstract This paper presents the historic process of the Latin American laity in this century, taking the case of Catholic Action, especially among the university youth. The author attempts to demonstrate the role played by these movements in the process of pastoral and theological renewal in recent years in Latin America. The study consists of three parts: l. The birth of Catholic Action as papal policy, signifying a break in the history of the Church through the participation of the laity in the apostolic hierarchy. 2. The implanting of Catholic Action in Latin America in the face of the development of social and political movements inspired by anarchism, socialism, and communism. 3. The transformation of Catholic Action and the birth of Liberation Theology. Resumen Este trabajo presenta el proceso histórico del laicado latinoamericano en el presente siglo, tomando el caso de la Acción Católica, especialmente a nivel de la juventud universitaria. La autora intenta mostrar el papel desempeñado por estos movimientos en el proceso de renovación pastoral y teológica en los últimos años en América Latina. 1. El trabajo consta de tres partes. El nacimiento de la Acción Católica como política papal, significando un corte en la historia de la Iglesia por la participación del laicado en el apostolado jerárquico. 2. La implantación de la Acción Católica en América Latina frente al desarrollo de movimientos sociales y políticos inspirados en el anarquismo, el socialismo y el comunismo. 3. La transformación de la Accíon Católica y el nacimiento de la Teología de la Liberación. (26 pages)
Feminist Theory, State Policy, and Rural Women in Latin America
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