Development 14

The United States must take stock of its economic programmes abroad … we want [the poor countries] to work out their economic salvation by relating themselves to us and by using our way of achieving their economic development.

Juan Gabriel Valdés (1995): Pinochet‘s Economists: The Chicago School in Chile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 89

Theodore W. Schultz (1902-1998) was chairman of the University of Chicago Economics Department. He was awarded the Nobel Price for economics in 1979.

From the 1950s onwards, in the Global South in particular, theories circulated that diverged sharply from Western development ideals. Representatives included the economist Raúl Prebisch (Argentina) and the sociologist Walden Bello (Philippines). They were called “pink-red” economists or dependency theorists. Pink-red denoted an orientation that was left, but not communist ("red"). Many had relationships with heads of state such as Salvador Allende (Chile) and Mohammad Mosaddegh (Iran). Because they questioned the general validity of the Western capitalist system, the West tried to change their minds or silence them, which it also attempted through development aid or education (e.g. of Chilean economists at the University of Chicago). Allende was assasinated and Mosaddegh overthrown with the help of Western intelligence agencies.

*Naomi Klein (2007): The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Knopf Canada.

1953