ABSTRACT
Historically, the economic and political development of Latin America has hinged on the interaction between two forms of capitalism, two modalities of accumulation: one based on the capitalist development of agriculture, the ‘normal’ pathway in the transition from a precapitalist agrarian society to a modern industrial system; and one based on the pillage of natural resources, the wealth provided by nature rather than labour power, which is the dominant force in the evolution of capitalism as a world system. The aim of this chapter is to establish the fundamental difference between the dynamics of these two forms of capitalism and, in particular, to analyze the economic and political dynamics of extractive capitalism in the Latin American context. The central focus of the chapter is on the advance of resource-seeking extractive capital in the context of what has been described as a ‘progressive cycle’ in Latin American politics – a cycle associated with the emergence of left-leaning regimes concerned with creating a more inclusive form of national development in their countries.
