Alternative Paradigms: Peripheral Views and Views from the Periphery

Abstract

The assumption underlying international economic relations since World War II has been, and continues to be, that economic growth is both desirable and necessary. Steadily rising living standards, in both North and South, are deemed desirable in and of themselves and, by extension, rising per capita incomes are assumed to signify an improvement in human welfare. Growth in the North is considered to be relatively autonomous of growth in the South, whereas rising incomes in the South are held to require expansion of economic activity in the North. Increasingly, the orthodox or mainstream literature also advocates economic growth as a prerequisite for dealing with poverty in the South. High rates of population growth, which are considered to be caused by factors other than income levels, are also held responsible for low per capita incomes in the South.