In this heartwarming little book, Hirschman recounts impressions gained during a visit to some 45 grassroots development projects supported by the Inter-American Foundation in six Latin American countries. Themes that are familiar to readers of his previous works on economic development recur here but with a new twist. Linkages and inverted sequences, for example, are characteristic of economic development, not only at the level of large industries or sectors but also at that of small community ventures. The emergence of an active involvement in public affairs and advocacy is linked to the prior successful development of cooperative activities undertaken to improve the private economic condition of members. Rather than being a prerequisite for the effective establishment of a cooperative, the acquisition of literacy is pursued as a consequence of the need to manage and follow its operations.
Throughout these accounts, Hirschman traces the incidents that gave rise to collective action and the manner in which ordinary people were mobilized for a common end. In some cases, a cohesive group and a thriving cooperative enterprise emerged out of a daring but failed venture, such as a land invasion. In others, success in a very small, single project led to a progressive expansion of cooperative ventures. Hirschman observes that the key ingredient of effective cooperative action is the dispelling of mutual distrust and isolation. This proves to be even more important than the need to mobilize capital resources.
However, external financial assistance is also an indispensable ingredient of success. Small grants from the IAF and other similar nonofficial American and European sources made possible the initial acquisition of an essential input. Technical assistance has increasingly come from native professionals who, rebuffed in attempts to achieve broad social or political reforms, lend their skills to promote visible change in the lives of their less- advantaged compatriots at a microlevel.
While the economic returns to participants in the cooperatives are significant, Hirschman also emphasizes important nonmonetary rewards. Lives have been enriched by a newly found self-esteem, by the formation of deep human bonds, and by the discovery that people working together can affect their own destinies. For social scientists accustomed to thinking of the state as the indispensable agent of change in the less-developed countries of the world, Hirschman provides a refreshing antidote, reminding us that small can be beautiful and that ordinary people can make it happen.
