term, to exploiting their primary products for the Western market. There is,
after all, nothing fixed about the terms of trade in primary goods. Oil may have
once been a matter for exploitation and political control by the First World; it is
now clearly a weapon of considerable power in the hands of the oil states
against their former exploiters. Nevertheless, the theory, by pointing out how
irrelevant formal political control may be, does help to show how long-lasting
are the chains of empire as they were cast during the great development of
colonial economic exploitation by the European powers in the 19th century.
Combined with the spread of multinational companies outside the control of
any Western governments, companies which frequently do control the raw
resources of poor countries, the general notion of economic dependency
cannot be ignored. During the 1980s, however, it became clear that the
Western money markets which had financed Third World development had
been seriously damaged by their policies. Instead of the loans to such countries
being exploitatively advantageous to New York, London, Paris and so on,
widespread inability to repay debts, combined with a greater self-confidence
on the part of the debtors, led to billions of dollars being wiped off stock
market values in the Western banking sector and the very existence of certain
institutions being threatened.
Deputies
Deputies are elected members of a legislative assembly. The term is not
normally applied to British members of Parliament, but is used in connection
with members of the French, German and Italian legislatures. A legislature
member regarded as a deputy has an obligation to echo the views of those
voters responsible for his election; in other words, adelegationhas taken
place. The opposite view, that an elected member should be able to speak and
vote according to their own convictions, stems fromBurke. In practice there is
no obvious difference in behaviour between deputies and legislators working
under other titles.
The term ‘deputy’ is sometimes used to refer to a person who is a surrogate
for a leader or fills their place when necessary. Thus most political parties have
deputy leaders. Technically a deputy is someone who acts in place of a
decision-maker when the latter is absent or unable to carry out their duties,
and is ‘deputed’to carry out that person’s will. The prefix ‘vice-’, as in the vice-
president of the USA, generally has a similar usage.
Deregulation
Deregulation is closely related, both theoretically and practically, toprivati-
zation, as common characteristics of economic policy change in the last
Deregulation