The Political Economy of Bolivia and Peru: The Impact of Extractivism in Post-Neoliberal Times (Global Challenges in Political Economy)

Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century-a period marked by profound global transformations and recurrent crises for many Latin American economies-two countries appeared to stand out for their sustained growth and notable improvements in social indicators: Bolivia and Peru.Despite divergent policy orientations, income derived from the large-scale exploitation of natural resources became the central pillar of economic growth in both countries.This book explores the political economy of Bolivia and Peru by situating their development trajectories within the changing global context of the twenty-first century and argues that the recent boom represents not a structural break, but rather a renewed phase of a long-standing extractivist accumulation pattern dating back to the colonial period. The book examines why, despite having formally escaped colonial rule almost two centuries ago-and notwithstanding an unusually favorable international environment-both Bolivia and Peru rema