ABSTRACT
The process of social disintegration which has been outlined probably affects the social institutions which provide the bases of the different social groups and through which they express themselves. The optimum functioning of the social system is perceived in terms of the ideal theoretical framework of the mature capitalist economy, represented in practice by the developed countries; underdevelopment as an imperfect and earlier stage on the way towards the ideal prototype. A realistic analysis of Latin American development should therefore be based on a conception which assumes our socioeconomic system to be formed by two groups of structural elements: internal and external. The theories which relate the national development process to the system of international economic relations, and which underlie the interpretation of past and present trends, may be classified in three main groups. These include: the neoclassical theory of international trade, the Marxist theory of capitalistic-imperialist exploitation, and the theories of the "backwash effect" of international trade.
