Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America. Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil

Abstract

Why are the countries of Latin America “underdeveloped?” The commonest answer today seems to be that their societies have failed to be completely modernized in some sense; they remain “traditional,” or “feudal.” This description suggests that the escape from poverty is a unilinear process in time, with some countries on one side of a historical watershed and some on the other, but all headed in the same direction. Frank wholly rejects this conception in favor of another. He believes that the Latin American countries are and always have been functioning parts of the European-centered system of world capitalist trade. Whatever “feudal” traces are to be found there are marginal phenomena, mere disguises for an underlying, fully developed market economy.