72
PARTISAN REVIEW
In the proper, nonemotive tones of respectable economics,
Chenery identifies one of three interlocked contemporary crises of
income and wealth distribution-the misallocation of resources
within developing communities. Translated into blunter language,
Chenery's conclusions record the failure of Western-style economic
development in much of Latin America, Mrica, and Asia . Flourishing
alliances between authoritarian regimes and multinational cor–
porations have simply promoted the sort of enclave industrialization
or raw material extraction which enriches small indigenous military,
commercial, and political elites, as well as the stockholders of global
corporation, but does amazingly little for the impoverished masses.
This somber generalization holds true even for such relatively
"successful" instances of development as Brazil, South Korea, and
Taiwan.
The second crisis of redistribution centers upon relations be–
tween raw material producers and raw material importers. OPEC has
predictably sparked envy and emulation among producers of other
raw materials important to the economic health of the affluent.
Although for a number of reasons, geographic and economic, no
other cartel has yet fared nearly as well as OPEC, there is no question
that attempts to organize tighter cartels in tin, bauxite, and other
materials will continue . Nor is there any doubt that in the forums
of the United Nations, the negotiations of international economic
agencies, and the competitive bidding for secure supplies and polit–
ical influence by the Soviets, the Chinese, and ourselves, pressures
will mount for the sort of commodity price agreements which
generalize the practices of the OPEC cartel. The fact that most of
the deveioping societies have been paragons of economic injustice
in their internal policies is no reason at all to expect that their
leaders will cease to scream for reparations from the rich countries.
Inexorable population pressure in the developing world, Russian
efforts to improve the Soviet diet, and American need for foreign
earnings, render it certain that food will become increasingly
expensive for average families in affluent societies. Since in the
perceptible future, substitutes for petroleum are likely to be
exceedingly expensive, energy costs are likely to remain high. Other
raw materials are fated to cost more in the 1980s than in the 1970s .
Reversing themselves with a vengeance , the terms of trade between
