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Science and Technology Policies in Developing Countries: A Political Analysis of Latin American Practice and Prospects

United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), Kapoenstraat 23 , 6211 KV, Maastricht, The Netherlands

The fact that some developing countries with authoritarian regimes have achieved high rates of growth and impressive technology development has been interpreted as an indication that authoritarian regimes fare better than democratic ones in the promotion of technical change. This paper argues that, in the Latin American case, authoritarian insulation led to lack of accountability and protected inefficiency; it did not translate into a capacity to elicit the desired innovative behaviour from the relevant players, nor guaranteed the correctness of policy decisions and timely adaptation to changes in the relevant policy parameters. These effects of authoritarian insulation are illustrated with the help of the informatics policies of Brazil and Argentina. Political and social democratisation lead to improved prospecls of more realistic and effective science and technology policies in the region that diffuse what are currently isolated cases of innovative dialogue between the users and producers of technology, that is, those who need a technological solution and those who design it.

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