Development and Underdevelopment : A Marxist Analysis

A Marxist Ana[ysis colonialism, and for this reason quickly came under attack from the supporters of the nationalist movements that spread so rapidly around the underdeveloped world. This criticism was soon generalised against an even more fundamental proposition of orthodox theory, that underdevelopment was an original condition for which capitalism could not be held responsible. By the mid-sixties a whole school of radical development economists had emerged which held the opposite view. Glaring inconsistenCies in orthodox theory were brought to light and historical studies were produced to show how important capitalist penetration had been. But this is as far as it went. As none of the major works produced by this school was firmly based on the law of value which Marx discovered and elaborated, little progress could be made beyond this point. The radical critics of orthodox development theory were so keen to prove the ideological point that underdevelopment was the product of capitalist exploitation, that they let the crucial issue pass them by: capital created underdevelopment not because it exploited the underdeveloped world, but because it did not exploit it enough. I have written this book with the intention that it should be understandable to readers with no previous knowledge of Marxism or economics. The opening chapters consist of an introduction to Marx's economic thought and all the concepts that are subsequently used in the later chapters are explained sufficiently for even the technical sections of chapters 5 and 6, which contain the heart of my argument to be followed. If this work achieves its goal of comprehensibility without compromise to the complexity of its subject, much of the credit must go to Susan Bennett who took the time and trouble to work through it with me on a line by line basis. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-12 Production, Consumption and Surplus....Pages 13-25 Surplus Value and Profit....Pages 26-55 The Accumulation of Capital....Pages 56-85 Productive and Circulation Capital....Pages 86-95 Merchant Capital and Underdevelopment....Pages 96-124 Industrial Capital and Underdevelopment....Pages 125-156 The Acceleration of Capital....Pages 157-171 Crisis and Recomposition....Pages 172-187 Back Matter....Pages 188-194 The author argues that underdevelopment is a function of capitalism, but not because the third world is overly exploited, but rather because it is not exploited enough.