South-South Cooperation: Another Regional Cooperative Movement or a New Pathway for the Sustained Development of the Third World?

The growth of Asia as an economic powerhouse in the past three decades has resulted in a renewed interest in the patterns on economic growth in under-developed countries. The debate continues on whether such an economic growth is sustainable or not and whether it is possible to replicate the Asian model of development across the under-developed world. In this situation one model of development that is being debated a lot is South-South cooperation as a form of economic development. Thus, in this paper I attempt to answer the question of whether a south-south model of economic development actually exists or is it just another form of regional cooperative movement, albeit on a grand scale. In order to answer this question I first contrast the developmental literature with the dependency literature and evaluate how effectively they have explained the economic development in the third world. Post this I use neo-institutionalism as well as concepts of competitive advantage and national competitive development from the management literature to formulate my own model. I put forward my hypotheses that economic shocks result in institutional change within states. Such an institutional change results in a change in the strategic thrust of a state. This strategic thrust results in a national competitive development of a state. Thus, as a result of all these aspects south-south cooperation between under-developed state is the ideal manner in which such a competitive development can be bought about. I will use the case studies of India and Brazil to justify my hypothesis and check its validity. I observe that the South-South cooperation can be considered as a model of economic growth for states that wish to further enhance their markets and increase as well as sustain their economic growth rates. I finally conclude with policy recommendations on how this model can be used to ensure sustainable economic growth. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]