Crisis and Contradiction

Since the late-1990s much of Latin America has experienced an uneven and contradictory turn to the Left in the electoral arena. At the same time, there has been a rejuvenation of Marxist critiques of political economy. Drawing on the expertise of Latin American, North American, and European scholars, this volume offers cutting-edge theoretical explorations of trends in the region, as well as in-depth case studies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela. Essays in the volume focus on changes to class formation in Latin America and offer new insights into the state-form, exploring the complex relationship between state and market in contexts of late capitalist development, particularly in countries endowed with incredible natural resource wealth.

Contributors are: Dario Azzellini, Emilia Castorina, Mariano Féliz, Juan Grigera, Nicolas Grinberg, Gabriel Hetland, Claudio Katz, Thomas Purcell, Ben Selwyn, Susan J. Spronk, Guido Starosta, Leandro Vergara-Camus, and Jeffery R. Webber.

Susan J. Spronk, Ph.D. (2007), York University, is Associate Professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is a researcher with the Municipal Services Project, a project that focuses on alternatives to privatization.

Jeffery R. Webber, Ph.D. (2009), University of Toronto, is Senior Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London. He is author of Red October (Brill, 2011) and From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia (Haymarket, 2011).

This book will define new debates on Latin American political economy. It superbly delivers fine-grained empirical commentary on the composition of working class politics across the region (in Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil), as well as theoretical exposure of the specificities of states and markets within the uneven and combined development of capitalism shaping Latin America. With leading political economists at the helm, this whopper of a book truly brings fresh radical perspectives to bear on the struggles against capitalist power within Latin America. Ignore it at your peril.
− Adam David Morton, University of Sydney and author of Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development

Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Economy is the indispensable source for students, academics and activists interested in the transition to neoliberalism in Latin America. If Latin America is the region in which, perhaps more than any other, the left needs urgently to take an interest, the contributors to this volume have taken up the challenge. They offer a vast, detailed and richly informative survey of recent political and economic developments in Bolivia, Venezuala, Argentina, and elsewhere, and have produced a volume which will serve both as a testament to the vitality of the left in Latin America, and a proof of the excellence of Marxist scholarship on the region. Susan Spronk's and Jeffery R. Webber's book is the finest example of its kind to date.
− Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS, University of London and author of The Value of Marx