Through detailed review of the Chilean and Argentine cases, Professor Vasconi seeks to demonstrate that the growing number of military states in Latin America is no coincidence, but a response to the historical logic of the dependent capitalist mode of development. He offers as the two most important causes of this trend toward a new kind of military rule: (1) the increasing class consciousness of the workers, and (2) the problems of domestic dependent capitalists (gran capital asociado) in establishing effective hegemony over the other factions of the bourgeoisie and over the society as a whole (p. 162). This Marxist analysis provides provocative insights into the contradictory role played by national developmental populism and the emergence of a dominant subclass within the bourgeoisie, the financial oligarchy with ties to foreign capital. Of interest as well is the author’s differentiation between Fascism and the current military states in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.
Occasionally verbose and pretentious to the Anglo-Saxon ear, the author’s minutely detailed and rigorously organized presentation palpably displays how appealing Marxist modes of analysis are to intellectuals rooted in a Latin scholastic tradition. To the open-minded reader, however, the power of this approach will also be evident, albeit amidst some misgivings at the tendency to explain by labeling and to accept as scientifically established what are still merely compelling hypotheses.
Copious references to recent Latin American political studies and periodical literature make this an especially useful work for specialists on Argentina and Chile. It would also be an excellent assignment in graduate seminars on Latin American politics. I regret to report, however, that the paperback edition, presumably the only one, self-destructs as it is being read.
