ABSTRACT
Socially, the main effect of both the economic growth and the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s was greater polarization. The major social formations were at the two extremes of Guatemalan society: at the top, a monopolistic but much diversified bourgeoisie that came to control a greater and greater share of the country's resources; and at the bottom, a growing proportion of the population living below the poverty line. The principal tendencies in the evolution of the dominant class in recent decades correspond to the expansion and diversification of the productive structure and other structural factors. At the other pole of Guatemalan society, growth and crisis, both capitalist modernization and stagnation, had profoundly destabilizing consequences: increased poverty, social polarization, and population displacements. In short, Guatemala has been experiencing a massive social crisis, virtually without interruption in recent decades, with no periods of "recovery" or alleviating factors.
