Worldly Philosopher by Adelman Jeremy

Author:Adelman, Jeremy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Albert in Recife, 1960.

The project was vast. “Close range” and “considerable detail” to the history of fast-moving reform in five complex countries was not just ambitious. It reflected the naïveté of a social scientist who yearned to do field work with little experience. It was one thing to build on concepts from practical experience, the approach in Strategy; it was another to organize evidence coherently and derive insights from it. This was a nub of concern from Ed Lindblom and eventually led to two cases being dropped. Mexico was supposed to exemplify reforms affecting foreign investment, and Argentina was an example of oil policy. Argentina in the early 1960s was seared by upheaval, its democratic system shaking in the absence of a Peronist party and Perón, and oil was the subject of a heated debate. Though less turbulent, Mexico was no less complicated as the regime contended with massive labor disputes and the patina of stability of the government was wearing thin. In fact, the whole area of economic nationalism was becoming a vast, highly contentious, and unbounded subject. Part way through the research, Hirschman abandoned these two most difficult cases and opted to focus on Brazil to examine regional development policy and SUDENE, on Chile to study inflation, and on Colombia to look at agrarian reform.

Journeys was the product of a historic conjuncture, and its author consciously let its energies shape it. Hirschman toggled back and forth between writing and field research, revising draft after draft in the light of new evidence and unfolding debates. One effect of this approach was to allow the passion of reformists motivate his analysis and seep into his prose; Hirschman was hardly an impartial raconteur. As he drafted chapters, he sent them out to the protagonists for their feedback, starting with Colombia, then Brazil, and followed by Chile, the case he found most difficult but perhaps most intellectually challenging. Carlos Lleras Restrepo, the champion of the agrarian reform law who left the country temporarily to let tempers cool, received a draft of the Colombian chapter thanks to Peñalosa, who was leading the countercharge in his absence. Through extensive conversations and commentary, Peñalosa had shaped Hirschman’s views—and so he was not surprisingly beaming about the analysis he found in the draft. He and Lleras in turn had a long conversation about it; Lleras asked his lieutenant to convey just how impressed he was at seeing their struggle so illuminated.35 Celso Furtado, the SUDENE founder, received his chapter and wrote back quickly from Rio with praise, “It seems to me an excellent overview and work of interpretation.” He added few amendments. What he wanted—not surprisingly given the glowing analysis of his venture—was a quick translation into Portuguese.36 President Kennedy’s ambassador to Brazil, Lincoln Gordon, a partner in the Latin American Issues project also relayed day-to-day unfoldings. He too read a draft of the SUDENE chapter and kept Hirschman abreast of Furtado’s clash with the plutocratic governor of Pernambuco. This loggerhead “is true in greater or

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