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FOURTEEN: Politics and Social Conflict in the Epoch of Neoliberalism, 1992–2004
- The University of North Carolina Press
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CONCLUSION The history of Puerto Rico in the American Century breaks down into four periods, which closely coincide with the phases of the U.S.and world capitalist economies since the mid-iSgos. (SeeTable I.Iin the introduction.) Puerto Rico, as apossession of but not part of the United States, has been pulled along by its metropole as U.S. capital and market demand repeatedly remade the Puerto Rican economy and the lives of Puerto Ricans, including the millions who moved north in search of employment. The specific form taken by the longterm fluctuations of capitalism within Puerto Rico cannot be divorced from the framework imposed by U.S.colonial rule and shifting state policies within that framework. Thus, each cycle of expansion of the economy has combined the development of an exporting sector with certain exceptional political measures that favor its growth.1 Summarizing the evolution examined in the preceding chapters, we can posit the following elements of this cycle: 1. Expansion of an export sector due to certain "exceptional measures" in the context of an upswing in the international capitalist economy 2. Growing difficulties in the main export sector due to the results of the ongoing expansion of the international capitalist economy 3. Additional "exceptional measures" that attempt to alleviate the growing difficulties in the main export sector 4. Jettisoning the existing pattern of incentives and "exceptional measures " and searching for a new "economic model" Puerto Rico has traversed this cycle twice during the American Century. Between the Spanish-American War and World War II, as the United States evolved from a regional to world power, the process unfolded asfollows: i. Between1900 and the early19203: rapid expansion of the sugar export sector stimulated by the privileged access to the protected North American market 2. After the early19203: growing crisis of the world sugar industry due to overproduction and overcapacity 3. During the 19203: protectionist measures adopted by the U.S.Congress in response to falling prices that stimulated production in Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the beet-producing states 4. After 1930: deepening of the world sugar crisis and revolution in Cuba, leading to the adoption of the quota system and other means of crop-reduction, combined with the Plan Chardon in Puerto Rico In the post-Worid War II period, when U.S.influencebecame truly global, the cycle took the following form: 1. During the 19503 and 19603: expansion of light manufacturing for export stimulated by tax exemption, nonapplicability of the federal minimum wage, and unrestricted access to the U.S. market, followed by the attempt to construct a petrochemical project around special import privileges 2. Bythe 19603: rise of manufacturing in semi-industrializing countries that compete with Puerto Rico in the U.S.market and sharp rise in oil prices after the mid-1970s 3. In 1976 in the midst of generalized recession:adoption of Section936 tax provisions that sought to expand tax incentives to confront faltering growth 4. Through the 19803 and 19903: adoption of free trade models that reduce the exceptionalityof Puerto Rico's access to the U.S.market and the inability of Section 936to launch a rapid expansion, concluding with the phaseout of Section 936in 1996-2006 Between the first and second cycle, Puerto Rican New Dealers, led by Luis Muftoz Marin, elaborated a project of agrarian reform and diversification, pro duction for insular consumption, and a more independent economic dynamic. This interlude began with the Plan Chardon in 1934 and concluded in 1947 with the adoption of the model of tax incentives to U.S.capital known as Operation Bootstrap. There was nevertheless some continuity between both periods as the state kept control of a significant array of publicagencies. Neither participation in the growth periods of the world capitalist economy nor the special features of its relation to the United States has allowed Puerto Rico to escape a condition of extreme dependence on foreign direct investments or its status as a relatively impoverished region under U.S. rule. Since 336 * CONCLUSION [52.91.255.225] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:01 GMT) this is the result of a century of unrestricted trade and unimpeded capital and labor mobility between Puerto Rico and the United States, it can hardly be blamed on an unwarranted limitation of the "natural laws" of the market, as neoliberal doctrines are wont to do. On the contrary, Puerto Rico's continued precarious economic and worsening social and ecological situation, secularly high unemployment rates, and lack of...