further industrial expansion. It is a phase marked by the high cost of
imported intermediate goods and capital equipment that cannot be produced
locally. This cost is quickly reflected in balance of payments deficits, for-
eign debt and inflation. There is a pressing need to overcome this problem
by the development of a manufacturing sector geared to intermediate and
capital goods rather than consumer goods. The policies aimed at that objec-
tive seek to acquire technology, managerial expertise and capital largely
from the multinational sector, to deal with economic crisis, and to create
long-term stability. This is the industrialization part of the constellation
associated with bureaucratic-authoritarianism.
The political activism factor refers to the political opposition to such poli-
cies from lower-income groups adversely affected by shortages of consumer
goods, the effect of inflation on wage levels, and unemployment arising from
a switch to more capital-intensive production. Protests, strikes and crisis
within the system of democratic politics have to be managed and controlled.
The spread of technology produces higher levels of social differentiation
associated with modernization (echoes of earlier modernization theory). The
particular development identified here as more significant than others is the
greatly increased role of technocrats in society. Technocrats do not have a
great deal of time for democracy. Participation, consensus-building, negotia-
tion and compromise all run counter to the values of the technocrat.
Democracy is seen as an obstacle to economic growth. The bureaucracy and
the military are identified in Latin America as being the main repositories of
such technocracy on the state side, forming a natural coalition with the tech-
nocrats leading the private sector. Managers and engineers, rather than share-
holders, are the dominant influences in industry. A new professionalism
within the military supports technocratic views of the economy and society
generally. Problems are seen as needing solutions that can only be provided
by those with the training and qualifications. This is a very distinctive per-
ception of the nature of social problems and is found in varying degrees in all
societies. The technocrats form a natural ‘coupcoalition’ to establish an
alliance between the military, the civil bureaucracy and the technocrats in the
private sector. Democracy gives way to the power of those with knowledge.
This line of analysis touches upon other interpretations of military interven-
tion in Third World politics. A coalition between civil and military officials
seems natural, not just because they have the same paymaster but also
because they espouse the same technocratic approaches to politics.
According to this perspective, the origins of bureaucratic-authoritarianism
lie in the need for governments to satisfy the demands of national entrepre-
neurs and the indigenous middle class, while at the same time enacting policies
in support of foreign capital. Different countries have had different degrees of
The State in the Third World 123