The success of the first edition of this book confirmed my impression that there was a growing interest, both in University circles and among the general public, in Latin American economic issues and in interpretations of these issues originating from within the region itself. This new edition has been kept more or less to the same length as the first, but many chapters have been extensively rewritten to give greater depth to the study of the institutional framework which is the basis of the structural matrix prevailing in the region, as well as to include up to date information on recent economic developments. In the six years since the first edition was written, Latin America has emerged from a phase of slackening economic growth to enter an expansionary cycle comparable to that of the first half of the 1950s. Moreover, there has been an intensification of the effort to bring about structural change, particularly in the agrarian sector; at the same time, new economic policy models have been introduced, and the ideological bases of these policies have been widened. The richness of Latin America's historical experience, stemming from a wide variety of situations, which cover the full range of contemporary underdevelopment and the entire spectrum of ideological approaches, accounts for the interest which the region arouses in the socalled developed countries as well as in the countries of the Third World.