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#19 The New Utopianism: Political Development Ideas in the Dependency Literature

By Robert A. Packenham

This paper was presented in a colloquium by the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and it was delivered at the 1978 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in New York City from August 31 to September 3, 1978.

Summary

Where are we in the study of political development? In the seventies, most scholars have rejected the liberal paradigms of the sixties. Two other ways of thinking about political development have become dominant: the "will-and-capacity" approach (e.g., Samuel P. Hungtington) and the dependencia perspective (e.g., Fernando Henrique Cardoso). This paper examines and evaluates the contribution of the "dependency way of framing" and answering questions about development in general but particularly political development.

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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more