Author:

Giorgio Boccardo Bosoni

Abstract:

In recent decades, Latin America has undergone profound transformations in its development model. These changes, known as the “neoliberal turn,” have left deep marks on its class and social group structure. Although influenced by similar external dynamics, the degree of implementation of reforms varies from country to country. This heterogeneity depended on the capacity of national and popular social forces to influence state action and economic policy. This research investigates the processes of constitution and dismantling of classes and social fractions in relation to the orientations adopted by the development model in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. These countries were selected because there is sufficient empirical evidence to support this analysis, and also because these cases can illustrate the transformation that occurred in other countries in the region. Three historical variants of transformation are proposed: Argentina, where classes and social groups are articulated around state distributivism, with factions forged during the Peronist period coexisting conflictually with others from the neoliberal period; Brazil, where, under the aegis of industrialization processes, the various social classes and factions of the “authoritarian miracle” reach a consensus on forms of integration during the gradual process of economic liberalization and deregulation; and Chile, where the depth of the neoliberal turn radically modifies the class structure of the national-popular period, while simultaneously accelerating the formation of new social factions. The objective is to understand the orientations that development models achieve based on the tensions generated by the disarticulation, constitution, and development of different social classes and groups and, in turn, to reflect on the interpretative dilemmas that Latin American sociology faces in the face of these transformations.