State and Capital Accumulation in Latin America

This is the second and final volume in a collection of studies on the role of the state in capital accumulation in Latin America. Volume one included a general historical and conceptual introduction and case studies on Brazil, Chile and Mexico. This present volume covers the remaining countries of South America (with the exception of Paraguay). The countries discussed offer a range of experiences within a broad common framework of problems and policy responses. The 1980s have witnessed a strong revival of interest in the issue of the role of the state in economic development in the Third World in general. In the case of Latin America, the debate has tended to focus on the possibilities of an export orientated strategy as a means to overcome foreign sector imbalances in the economies of the area and as a solution to the crisis provoked by the growth of their foreign debt. This volume contains a number of case studies which take up these issues in different degrees, while the final chapter discusses them as they apply to all ten countries covered in both volumes. The chapters concerned with the case studies demonstrate the crisis of the model of growth and accumulation implemented in the ten countries and the crisis of the state both in the economic and the political spheres. The final chapter raises the question of ways out of the crisis and attempts an evaluation of the prospects for alternative development paths in the area. Since the export-oriented strategies being proposed present the newly industrializing countries of East Asia as a model to be followed, there is also an attempt at a comparison between Latin American and East Asian experience with a view to finding out the extent to which the latter can be copied.