Book Review: The Global Political Economy of Raúl Prebisch

This edited volume by Matias Margulis examines Raúl Prebisch’s ideas, agency, and influence in an interdisciplinary manner, with a particular emphasis on his relevance for Global Political Economy (GPE). This interdisciplinary approach reminds the reader that Prebisch was indeed much more than just an economic theorist, and that his influence on development policy was profound. An important contribution of this book is the emphasis on how Prebisch’s ideas changed over time, partly as result of the failure of his political projects, first in Argentina and later in Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC). With time, Prebisch became more acutely aware of the importance of political power, not just economic capabilities, for shaping institutions as well as for forming the rules of the world economy. This is important to emphasize, as Prebisch’s work is sometimes criticized for being overly economistic (see, for example, Palma 2016; Shivji 2016), which is not a valid critique for his work during the last part of his life.