Röpke rejected dependency theory while citing Jewkes against import substitution

Evidence

Röpke pointed out that the overwhelming share of industrial production remained highly concentrated in just a few countries, in spite off the dedicated efforts to industrialize new countries. To back this assertion, he quoted a recent study of his Beauvallon co-speaker and fellow MPS member John Jewkes. Jewkes argued that the inherent advantages of industrialization, science, and technology lead to benefits accruing to industrialized nations, and these had described precisely the reasons for import-substituting industrialization strategies: dedicated efforts were needed in order to break the “vicious cycle of poverty” and to overcome the dependencies resulting from the prevailing global division of labor, according to Myrdal and others. Röpke assured his readers, however, that traditional production was not inferior, and he forecasted improving terms of trade for primary commodities in the long run for those developing countries that dedicated their efforts to this sector. The crisis of raw materials production and trade in the aftermath of the Great Depression was regarded as the key culprit in erroneous thinking (of Prebisch and Singer, without mentioning them) (Röpke 1953, 88–89). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1287

Categorization

• XREF: Presents an early free-market rejoinder to Prebisch-Singer and dependency theory — a strain that later connects to the Washington Consensus era development economics. — connects to: Dependency theory denied that market trade is voluntary and mutually beneficial — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 320; Röpke advocated export agriculture over industrialization and mistrusted UN governance — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1288
• QUESTION: Interesting that Röpke attacks Prebisch-Singer without naming them — worth investigating the dynamics of the MPS engaging with (and dismissing) structuralist economics.
• SEED: Article angle: the specifically anti-dependency-theory strand of early neoliberalism, and why Röpke saw traditional agriculture as the growth path rather than industrialization.

Broader Connections

• Dependency theory denied that market trade is voluntary and mutually beneficial #responds-to (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 320
• Röpke advocated export agriculture over industrialization and mistrusted UN governance #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1288