Author:

Giorgio Boccardo Bosoni

Abstract:

The transformation that has occurred in Latin America in recent decades has generated significant changes in the physiognomy of its structure and main social groups. These changes, linked to state and economic reforms, have given rise to heterogeneous modernization. In some countries, this modernization has radically altered the “developmentalist society,” while in others, the partial transformation has meant a certain continuity of the social groups from the previous period. This work analyzes the social structure of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile from the 1980s onwards. Three historical variants of transformation are proposed: Argentina, which partially reversed the trends of “destructuring” of developmentalist social groups; Brazil, whose gradual changes allowed the “negotiated” integration of developmentalist social groups into the modernization process; and Chile, where structural reform radically modified its social structure and its main groups.