The process of accumulation and the weakness of the protagonists

During the three decades leading up to the present crisis the growth of the product, employment and the level of investment in Latin America reached a very high rate, but the process of accumulation had two important defects, if compared to the United States in the period 1870-1910. First, its greater dependence on the exterior, both on direct foreign investment and on external financing and, second, the lesser relative importance of local private investment in comparison with State investment. Both these features illustrate the relative weakness of local private business in the process of capital accumulation.