DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS IN THE ALBA

Abstract

This article focuses on the economic development policies of the ALBA process that have emerged as an alternative pattern of integration. By focusing on the main principles and theoretical foundations of the ALBA, the article will try to assess the extent of its discontinuity from neoliberal policies and the Washington Consensus. In addition, the article will analyse the neodevelopmentalist approaches developed by the Comision Economica para America Latina (CEPAL) and the applied economic development policies under the ALBA and the Bolivarian Revolution process in Venezuela. For this analysis the roots of the endogenous development concept will be examined. Under the given circumstances and constraints of today's economic and political climate, it argues that the ALBA provides a unique approach to the formation of economic development policies in the twenty-first century.