The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America

Henry Veltmeyer is the author of inter alia "The Canadian Class Structure" and "Canadian Corporate Power", and (with F. Leiva and J. Petras) "Poverty and Democracy in Chile". James Petras is author of "Neoliberalism and Class Conflict in Latin America" (Macmillan 1997), and has published over 250 articles in journals including the "British Journal of Sociology", the "American Sociology Review" and the "Journal of Peasant Studies".

This study examines fundamental theoretical and conceptual issues of social change in Latin America in the context of detailed empirical analysis. The study centers on the structural features of Latin America and the state policies reconcentrating power in the capitalist class at the expense of labor.This study examines fundamental theoretical and conceptual issues of social change in Latin America in the context of detailed empirical analysis. It challenges the major assumptions and propositions that underlie globalization theory, reworking and fine tuning the concepts of imperialism and social class as relevant to understanding the 'new world order'. The study centers on the structural features of Latin America and the state policies reconcentrating power in the capitalist class at the expense of labor. The study surveys the contradictory tendencies of concentrated wealth and power and the emergence of new socio-political movements and alternative development strategies to the dominant paradigm.