The economic factors which were so crucial to the Belaúnde administration in Peru during the period 1963 through 1968 are analyzed in depth by Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski in Peruvian Democracy under Economic Stress. They were factors which in no small part led to Belaúnde’s ouster by the military.
The volume’s organization provides the reader with a general economic and social background, a review of the major participants in the Peruvian economic and political arena, and a chronological breakdown of the events which occurred during the Belaúnde administration. The final chapters deal with the effect of U.S. foreign policy and the International Petroleum Company case.
Kuczynski, who held the position of economic adviser and manager of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru during this period, has attempted to present a nonideological, nonbiased account of the actors, positions, and outcomes of the various deliberations to which he was a party during the Belaúnde administration. As sometimes happens, however, with “insider” analysis, there are too many details for the general reader who wishes to gain an understanding of the factors which led to the crisis of 1966 to 1968. The serious student of Peruvian economic history, however, will be delighted with such detailed information. The student of political science will also benefit from a volume which demonstrates how rapid modernization and the diffusion of power accompanied the increasing economic changes.
Peruvian Democracy under Economic Stress is a volume to be recommended to all students of Peru or of economic development in the Third World. It provides a case study of the problems confronting a developing nation when it attempts to bring about economic change within a democratic framework. More careful editing would have removed the occasional distraction of awkward syntax and repetitious phraseology.
