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Under-Developed Countries in the World Economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
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It is with some misgiving that I put forward the suggestion that a Canadian may be in a better position than either an Englishman or an American—despite the experience of the former, the energy of the latter, and the assurance of both—to appreciate the complex problems of under-developed countries. Nevertheless, emboldened by the modest, freely admitted and unhesitating recognition (by Canadians) of Canada's success in the historic role of interpreting the United States to Great Britain and Great Britain to the United States, and undeterred by the somewhat less striking evidence of our capacity to interpret ourselves to one another within the framework of a federal state, I am ambitious to extend the operations of such an honest broker of goodwill to include a more racially variegated, linguistically diversified, and culturally challenging clientele.
The credentials which a Canadian may offer in asking to be considered as a possible interpreter of at least some of the problems of under-developed countries cannot be brushed aside as completely fraudulent. As an expert on under-developed countries has pointed out, “one might almost say that a country is ‘underdeveloped,’ if its government considers development a problem, in a way which calls for positive policy. In this sense, Canada would have been an underdeveloped country throughout the nineteenth century, and might even be considered so to-day, despite its high per capita income and its current rate of economic growth.” Certainly if one of the more important criteria of an under-developed country is a heavy reliance on foreign capital for economic development, Canada may still be looked upon as an underdeveloped country subject to many of the stubborn political and social, no less than economic, problems and frictions which such a position involves.
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- Articles
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , February 1959 , pp. 453 - 466
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1957
References
1 Higgins, Benjamin, Development Financing, reprinted from International Conciliation (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), 277.Google Scholar
2 Measures for the Economic Development of Under-Developed Countries: Report by a Group of Experts appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (New York, 1951), 3.Google Scholar Under-developed areas may, of course, remain in such countries as Canada and the United States, where “one can find regions in which per capita income is so low as to warrant the use of the term ‘under-developed’” ( Higgins, , Development Financing, 276–7Google Scholar).
3 See Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland:Economic Report, 1956 (Salisbury, S.R., 1956)Google Scholar and Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland: Report of the Fiscal Review Commission, 1957 (Salisbury, S.R., 1957).Google Scholar I am indebted to my colleagues on the Fiscal Review Commission for much information on the Federation but I wish to absolve them completely from responsibility for any errors of interpretation or judgment which may appear in this paper.
4 See Britneil, G. E., et al., The Economic Development of Guatemala: Report of a Mission Sponsored by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Collaboration with the Government of Guatemala (Washington, 1951).Google Scholar See also Flan de Desarrollo Economico de Guatemala, 1955-1960 (Guatemala, CA., 1956).Google Scholar
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29 The price of Rhodesian copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped from an all-time high of £437 per long ton on March 19, 1956, to £.240 on February 19, 1957, and to £220 by June, 1957, but production could hardly be described as unprofitable even at the lower quotations. The Federal Minister of Finance has wisely treated all tax revenues from copper over £240 a ton as windfall profits to be used for capital development rather than as general revenues available for recurrent expenditures. On year-to-year fluctuations, cyclical movements, and long-term trends for copper, coffee, and many other primary products over half a century, see United Nations, Instability in Export Markets of Under-Developed Countries in Relation to Their Ability to Obtain Foreign Exchange from Exports of Primary Commodities, 1901-1950 (New York, 1952).Google Scholar
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33 See also Britnell, G. E., “Problems of Economic and Social Change in Guatemala,” this Journal, XVII, no. 4, 11, 1951, 468–81Google Scholar, and “Underdeveloped Countries: The Theory and Practice of Technical Assistance-Factors in the Economic Development of Guatemala,” American Economic Review, XLIII, no. 2, 05, 1953, 104–14.Google Scholar
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36 See Mason, Philip, A New Deal in East Africa (London, 1955), 7–8 Google Scholar, and Report of the East Africa Royal Commission, 14-22, and chaps, VI, XXI, and XXIII.
37 See Report of the Southern Rhodesia Franchise Commission, 1957 (Salisbury, 1957).Google Scholar
38 Professor K. C. Wheare, who was constitutional adviser at the conferences preceding federation, declared in a B.B.C. broadcast from London on January 1, 1954, that the new constitution's great claim to distinction was its “attempt to use federalism to provide a system of government for Europeans and Africans.” On the choice of a federal rather than a unitary basis for the new state, Professor Wheare argued that “it will have been justified, if it gives to Africans a sense of political justice, and if it makes them feel that, with the reservation of matters which primarily concern them to the territorial governments, they will not suffer by being associated with other territories in a federal government. Time alone will show whether a feeling of justice and security and prosperity does develop in the federation. What is clear, however, is that those who framed the constitution took great care that safeguards for the interests of Africans were provided in the constitution, and not only in its federal provisions. If, as the constitution is worked, Africans and Europeans can come to feel that they share in common a loyalty to Rhodesia and Nyasaland, while retaining, as do the French and British in Canada, all those national or racial characteristics and common loyalties and sentiments and ways of life which they value tremendously, then the federation will have achieved not merely success, but a unique success.” On the political background of federation and some of die problems encountered in working out arrangements for a federal state between a colony enjoying responsible government (Southern Rhodesia) and two Protectorates directly under the control of the Crown (Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland), see Kirkwood, Kenneth, “British Central Africa: Politics under Federation” in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, CCXCVIII, 03, 1955, 130–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39 “Mr. Kwenje: Sir, I beg to Move that the Nyasaland Protectorate be extricated from the Federation of Central Africa since Nyasaland is a foreign country under British protection because the protected people of Nyasaland did not sanction it, thus the Legislative Council sitting that passed Federation was incompetent. …
“Mr. Chinyama: I am seconding the Motion in full. It is now six years, even over, since we, the Africans of Nyasaland have opposed, and are still opposing the scheme of Federation. … Africans in Nyasaland, from Chiefs to the commoner, to the women; they all oppose Federation. …
“Mr. Chipembere: We prefer, Mr. President, a poverty-stricken Nyasaland outside the Federation to a fabulously rich Nyasaland inside the Federation; even if Federation were so economically advantageous as to turn every African in this country into a millionaire we would not accept it, we should still oppose it even if it meant walking naked in the streets of Blantyre or Zomba. Thank you, Mr. President (Applause.)” (Nyasaland Protectorate: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Seventy-First Session of Legislative Council, Sth, 7th, 8th, and 9th February, 1957, 54, 56-7, 61. See also headlines and news reports on 1957 session in Rhodesia Herald: “Nyasaland Africans Walk out of Legislative Council Debates” (Feb. 9, 1957); “Nyasaland Debates: Africans Shatter All Hope of Co-operation” (Feb. 11, 1957).
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