Globalization, the Industrialization of Puerto Rico and the Limits of Dependency Theory

Der Beitrag zeigt entlang der wichtigsten Veröffentlichungen Andre Gunder Franks seine Entwicklung von der Erforschung des "europäischen Weltsystems" zu einem globalistischen Erklärungsansatz. Frank postulierte mit seinem Buch ReOrient die Existenz eines frühneuzeitlichen Weltsystems mit weltumspannendem Charakter, in dem Ostasien (insbesondere China) die führende Kraft dargestellt habe. Als Triebkraft der weltwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung ortet Frank allerdings nicht die innere Stärke Chinas, sondern den globalen Wirkungszusammenhang. Demzufolge sei der Aufstieg der nordwesteuropäischen Seemächte zum Zentrum der Weltwirtschaft, den Frank erst an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert ansetzt, nicht Ausdruck eines "europäischen Sonderweges", sondern Resultat veränderter Kräfteverhältnisse in der Weltwirtschaft. Der Beitrag greift die Einwände auf, die das Franksche Konzept eines "Single World System" hervorgerufen hat und diskutiert abschließend Konsequenzen seines globalistischen Anspruchs für die globalhistorische Forschung.

The article explores the legacy of Andre Gunder Frank in International Relations. Frank developed a theory of the entire capitalist system as a planetary wide system of exploitation replicating centre-peripheral satellite relationships. Eploitation and accumulation generate a parallel geography that serves like a gigantic infrastructure channelling capital from the periphery to the centre. The author discusses some characteristics of the capitalist world economy assumed as universals and arrives at the conclusion that Frank's theory, however, failed to take count of important changes in the nature of capital as anticipated future earning, Contemporary International Relations, particularly in the sub-field of International Political Economy has developed a novel geo-economic conceptualisation demonstrating that the core-periphery schema of relationship was a transitory moment in the developmentof global capitalism.

This article takes issue with a small book published by Frank in 1969, Lumpenburguesia: lumpendessarrollo. In this book, Frank firmly questions the transformative capacity of the national bourgeoisies in Latin America. The lack of any revolutionary capacity of the bourgeoisie in the backward countries is, according to Frank, part of the condition of dependency. As a consequence, underdevelopment has to be perceived not only as an external force. Rather, the dominant classes in Latin America are partners in their own submission, becoming thus a "sattelite bourgeoisie". In the second part of the paper the authors discuss the recent political development in Latin America, characterized, on the one hand, by a polarization of the "lumpenbourgeoisie" into a small group of magnates who have benefited from globalization and the majority of smaller capitals displaced by brutal international competition and, on the other hand, by electoral victories of the political left in many Latin American countries. The authors question, however, that these governments of the left can engender a social dynamic leading to a true transformation of the lumpenbourgeoisie and its lumpendevelopment in Latin America.