Backwardness vs Development. Latin America’s Age-Old Dilemma

The article presents a modern interpretation of the traditional theme of the Latin American narrative regarding determinism of social and economic lag of the countries of the region and the possibilities of overcoming it, taking into account the changing geopolitical and geoeconomic situation. The author departs from monodisciplinarity, combining several approaches – through the prism of economics, social determination, and taking into account the factors of public consciousness formation. At the same time, the unprecedented nature of the new world context of development of Latin and Caribbean America (LCA), which carries a multi-vector transitional transformation, is emphasized. The logic of the article leads to the necessity of supplementing the subject of analysis with the effect of the formation in public consciousness of inferiority complexes sui generis on the periphery of the established world economic system and superiority in its centers. The author appeals to the historical determinism of evolution of economy and society in the LCA region and to contemporary practice, highlighting precedents and opportunities for embarking on a trajectory of accelerated modernization by harnessing promising development trends. Under such conditions, alongside the advantages of resource endowment and the rational use of international division of labor, emphasis is placed on the creative sociocultural potential of Latin American nations. This potential can be realized through paths of reindustrialization and reintegration within the framework of global technological renewal, on the one hand, and through the synergetic effects of a civilizational synthesis unfolding in the LCA space, on the other.