Integrating social formations into the world economy: The cases of Indonesia and Nigeria.

Abstract

The present study provides a framework which accounts for diverging patterns of development among economies of the "periphery". Economic development is viewed as the conversion of surplus into productive investment. The integration of developing social formations is based on the presence of a world competitive sector that generates surplus through export earnings. The state apparatus is responsible for creating favorable conditions for national economic development by establishing domestic distributive channels that permit surplus to be utilized productively. Differences in patterns of economic development between social formations are related to the extent to which conditions fostering the productive utilization of surplus have been established. The study compares and contrasts the political and economic experiences of Indonesia and Nigeria. These two cases possess notable similarities in regards to their productive structures and the composition of their societies. Both of their economies, subjected to the effects of a booming petroleum industry in the seventies, undergo profound socio-economic transformations. This analysis concentrates on the period between the two oil shocks, which extends roughly from 1973 to 1982. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)