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Dependency and the Urban Experience: São Paulo's Public Service Sector, 1885–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Gerald Michael Greenfield
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In a recent critical survey of scholarly writing on dependency theory, Ronald H. Chilcote noted that, ‘like other theory in an infant stage, dependency theory has spawned a plethora of interpretations and applications, and has been adopted by ideologues on all sides of the political spectrum’. This enthusiastic response, while welcome for the new perspective it affords on underdevelopment, has led some Latin Americanists to caution against the over-application of dependency theory and the unwarranted inflation of its explanatory power. Richard M. Morse, speaking specifically of urban development observes that ‘the “external dependency” thesis … easily leads to dogmatism’, and Phillipe Schmitter warns against the indiscriminate use of the theory to explain all of Latin America's ills. Such caveats have merit, especially in view of the plasticity of current thinking about dependency.

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Articles
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Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , May 1978 , pp. 37 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

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24 Agua e Luz's four steam-powered generators produced 500 kilowatts, and the company served residents on a few central city streets. Sampaio, Theodoro, Notas sobre o Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo, 1896), p. 72.Google Scholar

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57 José Pereira Rebouças to Cerqueira Cesar, 31 Dec. 1891, AESP/4137/17.Google Scholar See also José Pereira Rebouças to Americo Brazilense, 15 April 1891Google Scholar and José Pereira Rebouças to Cerqueira Cesar, 20 Jan. 1892, AESP/4138/18; 4544/24.Google Scholar Inadequate pressure reduced the effectiveness of the company's works. For example, the Director of the Immigrant Lodging House reported that opening three or four faucets simultaneously reduced water to a trickle and cut off all flow to the infirmary. P. d'Almeida to the Director of the Superintendency of Public Works, 28 Dec. 1891, AESP/4137/17.Google Scholar

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63 Relatório de Obras Publicas, Oct. 1890.Google Scholar The Director also asserted that private companies always must have their mercantile interest first and public healthfulness second’.

64 Relatório da Agricultura (1894), p. 32;Google Scholaribid. (1895), p. 182. Bruno, Ernani Silva, História e: radições da cidade de São Paulo (3 vols., Sã Paulo, 1954), 3, 1109; 1124.Google Scholar

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66 Relatório da Agricultura (1894), p. 215;Google Scholaribid. (1895), p. 115.

67 A per capita daily supply of 223 liters; a gross volume of twenty-seven million liters. Relatório da Agricultura (1895), p. 115.Google Scholar

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72 Ibid. p. 248. The Secretary remarked that although more work remained, given the urgent necessity of undertaking other very costly projects which also would affect drainage, the further construction of drainage works would be left for a more opportune time.

73 Ibid. (1895), pp. 170–1.

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80 Ibid.

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83 Relaiório da Agricultura (1904), p. 219.Google Scholar

84 Ibid. p. 223.

85 Ibid. 1905, p. XVI.

86 Ibid. (1906), pp. 299–302; Egas, Eugenio, Galeria dos Presidentes de São Paulo (3 vols., São Paulo, 1926–1927), 2, 283.Google Scholar

87 Ibid.

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89 The reservoir was not completed until 1908. Relatório da Agricultura (1908), p. LI.Google Scholar

90 Ibid. (1906), pp. 306–7.

91 Ibid. (1907), p. xxx.

92 Ibid. (1908), p. 286.

93 Ibid. (1950), p. 197.

94 Egas, Galeria, II, p. 389.Google Scholar The President noted that during 1910, over three thousand new buildings had been constructed. Ibid. p. 345.

95 Repartição de Aguas e Esgotos, Estudos preliminares para o reforço do abasiecimento d'agua da cidade de São Paulo pelo Director Authur Motta (São Paulo, 1911), pp. 34; 45–6; 160.Google Scholar

96 Egas, Galeria, II, 467.Google Scholar

97 To be sure, the State did expropriate Cantareira, a response not forthcoming with regard to the foreign utility companies. In this, however, considerations other than the distinction between foreign and domestic had importance. Water is a peculiarly vital service. It directly affects the health and safety of all urban dwellers. In the United States, where private corporations typically controlled most services, waterworks and sewers especially after the Civil War increasingly became municipal functions. McKelvey, Blake, The Urbanization of America (New Brunswick, N.J., 1963), pp. 89–91.Google Scholar

98 Relaório annual da Secção de Obras da Intendencia Municipal de S. Paulo, 1894 (São Paulo, 1894), p. 89.Google Scholar

99 Ibid.

100 Annaes da Camara (1905), pp. 89–90; 217.Google Scholar

101 Tenenbaum's, Barbara study of Mexican development ‘Straightening Out Some of the Lumpen in the Development’, Latin American Perspectives, 2 (Summer 1975) stresses the point of compulsion rather than conscious choice as a motivating force.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

102 In this latter connection one should note the demise of Agua e Luz. Light also supplanted Viação Paulista.Google Scholar This tends to corroborate a judgement advanced by Stein, Stanley J. and Hunt, Shane J. ‘Principal Currents in the Economic Historiography of Latin America’, The Journal of Economic History (03 1971), 31, 252 ‘Factor supply is of course increased in the short run by the presence of the foreign factors; the long run effect may be negative, however, on such key factors as local entrepreneurship.’CrossRefGoogle Scholar