Integrating Latin America economically, politically, culturally, or in any other way evidently borders on the impossible. Integrating forty papers ranging from engineering studies to reports on the status of medical libraries in Latin America into one meaningful volume is no small task either, as Ronald Hilton can no doubt attest.
The volume under review is an outgrowth of a conference on Latin American integration (especially economic integration) convened in Palo Alto, California, by the California Institute of International Studies during 1968. It is divided into eight parts under the headings of Historical Background, General Problems, Economics and Banking, Industry, Law and Politics, Communications, Science and Culture, and Regional Studies. Predictably, the papers are of very uneven quality; several are excellent by any test, most are at least informative, but a few, to put it charitably, should have been deleted had it been politically possible to do so. Nonetheless, the book as a whole is enlightening and useful and offers a little something in the way of facts, analysis, or opinion for nearly anyone with an interest in Latin America.
The general flavor of the papers is one of hope well laced with doubt. Most authors seem convinced that important gains are possible via economic (and political and cultural) integration, but few are convinced that these are probable. Most papers dwell rather extensively on the problems and obstacles to be overcome; proposed solutions are rare.
Briefly scanned, some of the better papers may serve to bring out the flavor of the conference. Donald Solar argues against integration on the grounds that it will tend to widen the income gap between the existing industrial centers and the poverty-plagued rural areas within the countries themselves and thus push real economic integration and development even further into the future. This, he says, will “enhance the ability of existing governments to resist nationalistic forces bent on redistributing rural wealth and restructuring agrarian society in favor of the unrepresented masses. Also . . . production for a continental market will adversely affect industry’s ability to absorb an adequate share of the rapid growth of the labor force and will inhibit or preclude the growth of industrial centers away from the capital cities” (p. 128).
Matthew Edel thinks that integration can be helpful, but like Solar is worried about the possible negative effects of integration upon income distribution. Ronald Krieger points up some advantages of abstaining from currency unification until a degree of economic homogeneity is achieved. He feels that the Central American Common Market is closer to this stage than the Latin American Free Trade Association. Walter Krause and F. John Mathis address the problem of economic disparities among countries within the groupings and suggest four answers of resolution, some of which are being tried: subregional integration, sectoral integration, intraregional financing, and “the exercise of leadership” (à la LAFTA’s Council of Ministers).
In all, this should prove a most useful reference work. It is a pity that there is no set of offerings on agriculture and its problems, hut both LAFTA and CACM give this sector scant attention, so that the sin is not original with this volume.
