ABSTRACT
The relation between social actors and models of development can be expressed, on the basis of an examination of the latter, as the result of a correlation of social forces benefiting in unequal degrees from the process of development. At the same time, models of development are largely defined by the economic and political characteristics of the elite which directs the process of social transformation. In Latin American Sociology of Development, this relation has been expressed in terms of two approaches: the logic of objective structures and the logic of the ideology of social actors (cf. Touraine 1987). Both approaches are based on the concept of social class, insofar as the socio-economic structure defines the position and the nature of the political orientations of the said actors. In the first case, the actors’ behaviour is related to the functioning of the economy. In the second case, their behaviour is guided by the ideological values of social classes advocating radical or conservative changes in the existing correlation of social forces. Both approaches can be found in the most diverse theories that have inspired the debate on development in Latin America. The conflictual relation between economic rationality and political voluntarism, and the search for an equilibrium between the two, has been a constant point of reference of the various theories of development in Latin America.
