ABSTRACT
Félix E. Martín Introduction The rapid increase of Spanish direct investments in Latin America since 1990 captures the attention of the general public, entrepreneurs, and students of the international political economy alike. Some explain Spain’s aggressive investment drive in Latin America stemming from purely opportunistic and pecuniary factors. Others argue that the experience of Spanish enterprises in a corporatist economic environment in Spain in the 1960s and 1970s gave these companies an edge or a competitive advantage in the Latin American market, which presented similar conditions to those prevailing in Spain just prior to, during, and subsequent to the political transition in 1975. Yet, still others, including this author, while sympathetic to the basic economic rationale argument, and to the “competitive edge” of some Spanish enterprises thesis, question whether or not the Spanish direct investment drive in Latin America may have been motivated partly by larger societal and political factors in Spain, and in the external environment.
