Reviews 45 5: Cristobal Kay, Latin American Theories of Development and Underdevelopment

Reviews 45 5
Although his class analysis is not novel, he argues against economic determinism
and he demonstrates the importance of political and, on occasion, cultural forces.
At the political level, he argues that different political coalitions associated with
different presidents have given rise to somewhat different transportation, housing
and other policies. Yet, cooptation, clientelism, divide and rule tactics, and
selective repression explain how, in the main, the state is able to rule, above all,
in the interests of the middle and upper classes, even after limited steps have been
taken to democratise governance.
Consistent with his structuralist interpretation, Ward criticises behaviouralist
conceptions of urban life. He criticises, for example, John Turner's thesis that
where migrants settle, within cities, depends on their preferences and priorities,
which change over time with their economic status. Ward, by contrast, contends
that socioeconomic and political constraint influence locational patterns.
Ward's 'reproduction of social inequality' thesis does not blind him from
highlighting urban improvements. In particular, he argues that transportation has
improved: to the benefit of the poor as well as the more well-to-do. Despite the
megacity's rapid rate of growth, cityfolk spend no more time in commuting to
work than a few decades ago.
Without seeking to belittle the importance of the book, I find his argument
overstated and, on occasion, insufficiently nuanced. Although Ward refers to a
few social movements that have defied the status quo he dismisses their
significance. I would argue that poor people's innumerable mobilisations for legal
land rights and urban services have benefited participants, even if the power and
wealth of the dominant class has not been challenged in the process. Similarly, the
gains made by lower class earthquake victims (in 1985) as a result of their defiance
and organisation outside formal political channels were substantial. Rather than
dismissing the gains as serving merely to ' reproduce inequality' Ward would do
better to examine the conditions that allowed inner city poor to fend off
bulldozers in the commercially valuable zone and persuade the state to build
subsidised housing for them. Accordingly, lessons might be extrapolated from
the experience about how the poor can effectively challenge the status quo.
Finally, Ward's emphasis on the state's mediating role may also be overstated.
If the state is so powerful that it 'reproduces inequality', how can pervasive
citywide illegality be explained. Ward notes that 50% of the population live on
land that was initially built up illicitly. Illegality typically reflects government failure
to enforce the law. The illegality, in my view, comes about not because the poor
are prone to misbehaviour but because they are able, through their force of
numbers and power to disrupt and defy the state. Urban poor are greater agents
of change than Ward acknowledges.
Boston University SUSAN ECKSTEIN
Cristobal Kay, Latin American Theories of Development and Underdevelopment

(London and New York: Routledge, 1989), pp. viii + 295, £12.99.
The aim of this book 'is to acquaint a wider audience with the various currents
of thought within the Latin American development school' (p. vii). This it does,
lucidly and comprehensively. The core of the book comprises five carefully
written chapters on structuralism, internal colonialism, marginality and
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456 Reviews
dependency (which receives two chapters). Particular care is taken to expound
very fully the ideas of authors whose work is not available in English. Full justice
is done to individual authors' particular points of view, and the most important
controversies within Latin America around each set of ideas are fully detailed.
The coverage is remarkable, and the reproduction of complex ideas and debates
is clear - often clearer than the original - and faithful to the various authors.
A number of important issues are particularly well dealt with. The nuances in
the dependency debate concerning the respective roles of internal and external
factors are very well handled, for example, and dependency critics rightly taken
to task for misinterpreting the theory. The early date of structuralists' own
critique of import substitution and worries about technology — the beginning of
the 1950s —is emphasised and documented. There is a nice analysis of the
interweaving of class, gender, race and other elements in internal colonialism.
The interdisciplinary focus is healthy. The author also has an excellent sense of
contemporary Latin American history, and the theoretical developments are
accurately explained as responses to empirical events. (The book does not
consider empirical evidence for the theories, but that would be totally impossible
within its scope.)
What is less rewarding is the extent to which the book synthesises the different
strands. This was not its objective - yet to be validly interdisciplinary surely
requires somewhat more cross-fertilisation than the brief two pages of
comparative comment at the beginning. As the book concludes, we could almost
forget about the two long chapters on internal colonialism and marginality. Only
once, on p. 119, is there a stimulating passage on the relationship between
dependency and marginality. Development of themes might also have made for
less repetition: for example, the inadequacy of the class analysis of most of the
writers considered is frequently mentioned.
The final chapter is the least satisfying, as the author reflects on trends in the
1980s and looks ahead. This is partly a problem of the speed with which the world
has moved: his sense as of early 1987 that neomonetarism is discredited and that
socialism has a future reads oddly today! But I also feel he needs to grasp more
firmly than he does the issue of short-term macro-management: while these
theories contain nothing helpful in this regard, they are unlikely to challenge the
conservative consensus. The issue needs more than the one sentence it receives
on p. 213.
In such a controversial area, everyone will have their differences with the
author. This does not detract from his remarkable achievement: a huge and dense
literature has been made coherently and accurately available to a wide readership
and in a stimulating way.
St Antony's College, Oxford ROSEMARY THORP
Sylvia Chant, Women and Survival in Mexican Cities: Perspectives on Gender,

Labour Markets and how-Income Households (Manchester and New York:
Manchester University Press, 1991), pp. xiv + 270, £35.00.
Sylvia Chant has produced an excellent book which is the product of over a
decade's research and reflection about how household structure mediates in
women's participation in housing, employment and organisational processes.
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Sylvia Chant, Women and Survival in Mexican Cities: Perspectives on Gender,

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