The State and Capital Accumulation in Latin America: a Conceptual and Historical Introduction

The concept of capital accumulation is as old as political economy itself. Curiously, though, it was not until the mid-1970s that it began to feature significantly in analyses of Latin American development.1 To be sure, the major contributions of Latin American economists in the 1950s and 1960s included treatments of issues of capital formation, and many of the relevant discussions were couched in political economy terms.2 But the emphasis tended to be on the consideration of abstract variables such as the aggregate level of savings and investment opportunities.