Latin America Crises and Contradictions
Book Review
Feeley, Dianne
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/197/latin-america/
Date Written: 2018-11-01
Publisher: Against the Current
Year Published: 2018
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX23458
Detailed review of a collection of essays on Latin America.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
Crisis and Contradiction
Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Political Economy
Edited by Susan J. Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber
Haymarket Books, 386 pages, $28 paper.
This edited colelction focuses on four Latin American countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela - examining "the relationship between state and market in late capitalist development." The collection as a whole combines theoretical explanations with concrete analyses of specific social formations presented by important Marxist political thinkers.
As Marxist economists and sociologists, these authors seek to summarize the economic decisions that various political leaders made, from the days of rentier capitalism (particularly Bolivia and Venezuela) and import substitution industrialization through the period of neoliberalism and globalization. In the global economic crisis of the late '90s, each of these governments was replaced.
While each had its unique history and experiences, massive movements demanding an end to the growing impoverishment exploded in every one. Yet the essays in Crisis and Contradiction are not a celebration of those victorious moments but an investigation of subsequent events. The authors analyze Latin America's "pink tide" and present a critique of the alternatives the incoming governments implemented.
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