Contribution To The Critique Of The Concept Of Underdevelopment Of ECLA

Of Panamanian nationality, Dr. José E. Torres Ábrego, is a master's degree in Economics on Universidad de la Amistad de los Pueblos (Patricio Lumumba) from Moscow, a doctoral candidate for specialty in Theory of Development and History of Economics of University of Paris, and doctor in Political Sciences of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (U.N.A.M). Among other charges employed in Mexico, he has been professor of the Faculty of Economy of the U.N.A.M. and the Division of Higher Studies of the Faculty of Political Sciences.
Since 1983 he is a full professor at the Faculty of Economics of the Universidad de Panama where he teaches the subjects national economic problems, Economic policy, Public finance, Economic fundamentals and social sciences in Latin America, Research methodology, etc. He has been director of the Research and Postgraduate Department of the Faculty of Economics of the Universidad de Panama.
In his non-teaching experience, it is important to note that he has been an Expert in Administrative and Financial Matters of the Banco Interamericano de (B.I.D) to advise small and medium enterprises; and advisor trade union organizations and professions.
Has delivered and participated in multiple conferences and round tables, and has published countless articles and works in various national and international journals. Among his main works are Population, Economy and Society in Panama (Contribution to the critique of Panamanian historiography), in two volumes, Volume 2 of the Panamanian Culture Library; Editorial Universitaria, 2nd. edition, Panama, 2014; The major challenges posed by the reversal of Canal and its Adjacent Areas to Panama and World Trade; Editorial. edition, Panama, 1999; Contribution to the study of underdevelopment (from monoproduction to modern oligarchy), Editorial Universitaria, 3rd. edition, Panama, 1995.
In the process of awareness of the objective reality arise certain concepts through which man fixate and express the proprieties, characteristics and links of the objects and phenomena’s of the outside world. The concepts that reflect the most important aspects, links and or characteristics of a field of phenomena’s constitute its categories. Each science possesses its own categories. In the case of the field of Theory of underdevelopment its categories arise during the first postwar period.
After the Second World War, in publications of the United Nations began the utilization of the category underdeveloped to designate the specific-historical reality of the peripheral countries linked to the capitalist system. It was expressed, with this category, the set of properties, characteristics, links and relationships, generally-essential and specific, of the new phenomena that reached in the process of its evolution the point of its full maturity. It was the way, to say it in a different manner, that the thought was taking ownership of this new historical reality. To such a point did society become aware of the underdevelopment that innumerable dependencies arose state, international, academically and university wide by those overseeing the phenomenon.