Economic and social development ideas in Argentina and Brazil during the 1960s

Abstract

This paper is part of the postdoc research project that the author is undergoing at the Central Institute for Latin American Studies, which belongs to the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany. The core of the project is to analyze the role of social development ideas within the economic development agenda in Latin America between 1960 and 1980, focusing on a shift during the late 60s: whereas the diagnosis of the Latin American economic situation changed from simple underdevelopment to more complex structural heterogeneity, the role of social policy changed as well, from accompanying rough economic development policies to becoming essential and necessary if economic development was to be achieved. In this paper we compare the first path of this shift in the two larger South American countries: Argentina and Brazil. The political history of both has been very different throughout the 20th century, but very similar during the 60s: both started the decade with a developmentalist democratic government but along the way both suffered from military coups (Brazil in 1964, Argentina in 1966) which established institutional dictatorships, which nonetheless maintained, but still changed dramatically, the developmentalist purposes. Be it the new request for social order, the new discourses which enhance the role of community and moral values, the new stage of the cold war or the analysis of the poor social results of previous development policies, both dictatorships decided to boost social policies as a necessary and inevitable component of economic development. Thus, in this paper we try to answer the questions regarding the ways, means and purposes of this shift, focusing on the economic ideas: how did these new ideas arise and which was the link between academic, formalized ideas and put-in-practice ideas?