ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with certain autonomous transnational actors and their special relationships with Latin America. The first, the Roman Catholic Church, is a unique actor with distinctive historical ties to Latin America. The Roman Catholic Church is the oldest important actor in the current international political system and is formally recognized by most of the nation-states. Liberals wanted to end the church's special status as part of their overall attempt to create societies in which all individuals were subject to common constitutional provisions and legal systems. Although corporate control remains centered within some sovereign state, the corporation exhibits a great deal of independence as an actor in the international political system. John Hunter and James Foley, defining an annual rate of return as the ratio of total earnings to the total outstanding investment before the payment of corporate income taxes, pointed out that caution should be exercised in analyzing published figures, primarily because of the nature of accounting procedures.
