Development and transition. Directions of the economic thought before the long term development problématique

Abstract

In this article the author tries to reach a panoramic vision of the main lines in the evolution of the contemporary economic thought concerning long term development. At the starting-point an essential bifurcation is established between the orthodox or bourgeois paradigm and the marxist paradigm. In one case, one tried to reach the interpretation according to the logic of the analysed capitalist processus itself and to its preservation; in the other, one searched for the radical critique and the revolutionary transformation of that same processus. The author shows first that the orthodox thought either in its neo-classic version or in its neo-keynesian expression produces instruments of analysis that may be useful to the management not only of the developped capitalism but also of different and even antagonic systems as to capitalism. In any case, the essential in the historical passage from underdevelopment to development implies the marxist paradigm necessarily. As a matter of fact the research on development must be, on one side, a research on the modalities and consequences of the structural dependence characteristic in the périphérie social formations of developped capitalisms and, on the other side, a research on the dynamics of capitalist structuration yet prevailing at wordly scale and on the internal and external strategies more convenient to overcome that dependence. In order to accomplish that task it is indispensable to resort to a reinterpretation of the marxist methodology of social research and to the analysis of the recent experiences in overcoming the structural dépendance.