The State and Underdevelopment in Spanish America: The Political Roots of Dependency in Peru and Argentina

ISBN-13: 9780367296315 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 236 str.

Douglas Friedman

Opis

Challenging the dependency theory approach to the origin of underdevelopment in Spanish America, this book argues that internal political and economic factors led the nations of the region to become dependent and underdeveloped during the nineteenth century. Dr. Friedman focuses on Peru and Argentina in the aftermath of their wars of independence to show how underdevelopment and dependency resulted from a crisis of the state brought about by the loss of legitimacy of Spanish colonial rule. Class conflicts had been effectively managed by the colonial state; its collapse, Dr. Friedman demonstrates, created conditions of intense inter- and intra-class conflicts, chiefly political in nature, which weak post-independence governments found impossible to restrain. Left with little authority, legitimacy, or control over internal resources, the fledging Peruvian and Argentine states turned to external sources for the capabilities with which to begin the process of consolidating their internal power. By the last half of the nineteenth century, both Peru and Argentina had chosen a course that led to their integration into the international economy as dependent nations.

Spis treści

Westview Replica Editions -- Dependency, Colonialism, and Crisis -- Spanish American Underdevelopment: Dependency Theory, the State, and Class Conflict -- State and Economy in Colonial Spanish America -- The Bourbon Reform Era: The Modern Absolutist State in Colonial Spanish America -- The Crisis of the Colonial State: The Spanish American Wars of Independence -- The State Origins of Dependency in Nineteenth Century Peru and Argentina -- Introduction -- Economic Class Conflict in Peru and Argentina: The Economic Basis of Political Class Conflict -- Political Conflict in Nineteenth Century Peru and Argentina: Political Crisis and the State -- The State and the Origin of the Export Economy: Peru and Argentina -- Conclusion: Spanish America and the International Economy

O autorze

Douglas Friedman is assistant professor of political science at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.