Privileged Accumulation Spaces and Restrictions on Development. State-Business Relations in Argentina (1966-1989)

CASTELLANI, ANA GABRIELA

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY

University of Missouri-Kansas City

Lugar: Kansas City; Año: 2013 vol. 72 p. 90 - 121

1536-7150

The aim of this work is to explain how the state-business relation has influenced economic development in Argentina. I will make a historical and systemic analysis of the Argentinian case to illustrate how and why state-business relations supporting privileged accumulation spaces (PAS) increased development restrictions from 1966 to 1989. Along this period, successive governments shared a common view about the central role the state had to perform for industrialization, especially by supporting the growth of big domestic industrial companies. This view would only radically change in 1989, when neoliberal structural reforms were implemented. To support this hypothesis, I suggest a methodological strategy that combines several techniques and sources in order to analyze the evolution of three complex variables and their multiple relations: state economic intervention, business behavior and performance by large corporations. The Argentinian case clearly shows the serious consequences of PAS expansion. PAS strengthen the structural positions of a reduced group of business and conglomerates, deepen the state crisis and set regressive patterns of economic activity. Moreover, they increase ? to an unknown extent ? the restrictions for establishing a development model that could increase domestic production and improve the quality of life of the society as a whole.