would go on to play an integral role in the development of dependency theory and the world systems theory , as well as partially influencing other international development movements such as End Poverty Now and Fair Trade . In a 2009 article titled ‘ Latin America’s Keynes ’ 195 , The Economist magazine noted the similarities in the legacies of Raúl Prebisch and John Maynard Keynes. The comparison is an apt one. Strong believers in the power of economic institutions and the role they can play in improving the wellbeing of society, both fell out of fashion amidst the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s. Following the 2008 financial crisis however, both thinkers have gained newfound relevancy as inequality has become a central political and economic issue. Like Keynes, Prebisch would find himself continuously frustrated by the chaotic nature of politics, and the extent to which political affairs would limit the influence he could exert on economic policy. At the BCRA, Prebisch sought to create a public institution that would be free from the malaise of Argentinian politics, yet he himself would be forced out of service by political forces. Rather than fortifying Argentina’s greatness and preventing economic decline he would be exiled, deeply reviled by those on both the right and the left. CEPAL, once so influential in Latin America, would be marginalised as a consequence of the rise of neoliberalism and the onset of the Latin American debt crisis. UNCTAD, far from being an institution “with teeth”, was ineffective at improving the terms of trade for underdeveloped countries; the divide between countries in the centre and those in the periphery remains. And yet, though he had his share of failures, it is hard to see how anyone could have fared better than Prebisch given the cards he was dealt. Far from Francisco Ecinas’s diagnosis of Latin America’s woes being the result of “weak character, habits, and values,” 196 the truth is that the region faced, and
195 “Latin America’s Keynes”, The Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/13226316, 28 th October 2015 196 Skidmore, Smith and Green, Modern Latin America, page 352.
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