Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Political Economy (Historical Materialism Book)

Since the late-1990s much of Latin America has experienced an uneven and contradictory turn to the Left in the electoral arena. At the same time, there has been a rejuvenation of Marxist critiques of political economy. Drawing on the expertise of Latin American, North American, and European scholars, this volume offers cutting-edge theoretical explorations of trends in the region, as well as in-depth case studies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela. Essays in the volume focus on changes to class formation in Latin America and offer new insights into the state-form, exploring the complex relationship between state and market in contexts of late capitalist development, particularly in countries endowed with incredible natural resource wealth. Contributors are: Dario Azzellini, Emilia Castorina, Mariano Féliz, Juan Grigera, Nicolas Grinberg, Gabriel Hetland, Claudio Katz, Thomas Purcell, Ben Selwyn, Susan J. Spronk, Guido Starosta, Leandro Vergara-Camus, and Jeffery R. Webber. List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Note on Contributors 1. Introduction – Systemic Logics and Historical Specificity: Renewing Historical Materialism in Latin American Political Economy Susan Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber PART I: THE ‘NEW’ WORKING CLASS: DECOMPOSITION AND RE-COMPOSITION UNDER NEOLIBERALISM 2. Roots of Resistance to Urban Water Privatisation in Bolivia: The ‘New Working Class’, the Crisis of Neoliberalism, and Public Services, Susan Spronk 3. The Neo-Developmentalist Alternative: Capitalist Crisis, Popular Movements, and Economic Development in Argentina since the 1990s, Mariano Féliz 4. The Reproduction of Democratic Neoliberalism in Argentina: Kirchner’s ‘Solution’ to the Crisis of 2001, Emilia Castorina 5. Doubly Marginalised? Women Workers in Northeast Brazilian Export Horticulture, Ben Selwyn 6. Emergent Socialist Hegemony in Bolivarian Venezuela: The Role of the Party, Gabriel Hetland 7. Venezuela’s Social Transformation and Growing Class Struggle, Dario Azzellini 8. Socialist Management and Natural Resource Based Industrial Production: A Critique of Cogestión in Venezuela, Thomas F. Purcell PART II: STATE AND MARKET IN LATE CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT 9. Conspicuous silences: State and Class in Structuralist and Neo-structuralist Thought, Juan Grigera 10. Sugarcane Ethanol: the Hen of the Golden Eggs? Agribusiness and the State in Lula’s Brazil, Leandro Vergara-Camus 11. From Global Capital Accumulation to Varieties of Centre-Leftism in South America: The Cases of Brazil and Argentina, Nicolas Grinberg and Guido Starosta 12. The Three Dimensions of the Crisis, Claudio Katz 13. Revolution against ‘Progress’: Neo-Extractivism, the Compensatory State, and the TIPNIS Conflict in Bolivia, Jeffery R. Webber References Index This Volume Focuses On Changes To Class Formation And The State-form In Latin America. It Explores The Relationships Between State And Market In Countries Endowed With Vast Natural Resource Wealth Such As Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil And Venezuela.