Debt, Development, and Democracy: Modern Political Economy and Latin America, 1965-1985

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In the 1970s and 1980s the countries of Latin America dealt with their similar debt problems in very different ways -- ranging from militantly market-oriented approaches to massive state intervention in their economies -- while their political systems headed toward either democracy or authoritarianism. Applying the tools of modern political economy to a developing-country context, Jeffry Frieden analyzes the different patterns of national economic and political behavior that arose in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela. He argues that variations in official borrowing policies and responses to lending cut-offs imposed by foreign creditors are best explained not by international but by domestic factors, particularly lobbying by powerful interest groups. This book will be useful to those interested in comparative politics, international studies, development studies, and political economy more generally.

Reviews

"In this jewel of a book Frieden systematically compares how and why Latin America's five largest debtors--Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela--differed in their approaches to development policy choices, paths of political development and responses to the debt crisis of the 1980s... Clear and cogent."--Foreign Affairs