To those professed ends, developmentalism was the paradigm used in an attempt to reverse the negative impact that the international economy was having on developing countries in the 1950s–60s, at the time during which Latin American countries had begun to implement import substitution strategies.
Dalam definisi tersebut, developmentalisme merupakan paradigma yang digunakan untuk memutar balik dampak negatif ekonomi internasional terhadap negara berkembang pada tahun 1950-an sampai 1960-an, masa ketika negara-negara Amerika Latin mulai menerapkan strategi substitusi impor.