The Roots of Poverty in Latin America / Edition 1

by Guillermo M. Yeatts

Overview

In the Americas, the Rio Grande has become not just a physical border, but an economic and social one as well. How can we explain the existence of two Americas--one prosperous, one poor--physically so close together, yet economically so far apart?

The Roots of Poverty is an in-depth analysis of how cultural, religious and social institutions have shaped the economic destinies of North America and Latin America over the last five hundred years. The British, who instituted constitutional limitations for the monarchy and protection of individual rights, wooed their colonists with promises of the same. The Iberian Peninsula, on the other hand, transplanted to its American colonies the traditions of insecure property rights, unpredictable taxation and governmental economic dominance. Even as independent nations, the countries of Latin America have found it difficult to move beyond the mindset established in their colonial days. Given this obstacle, what is the region's potential for a better future? That topic is covered in this book's final chapters, which look at recent developments in individual Latin American countries and considers the possibilities for an economic turnaround.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786422357
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	09/01/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	185
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Guillermo M. Yeatts lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has written four books, two regarding property rights in industry and two focusing on the causes of Latin American underdevelopment.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword: The Scant but Valuable Tradition of Self-Examination by José Ignacio García Hamilton     

1. Poverty to the South of the Rio Grande     
2. Spain, Great Britain, and the Limits to Royal Power     
3. Public Conquest, Private Colonization     
4. Post-Independence Institutional Continuity in America     
5. Rebirth and Decline of Interventionist Institutions (1930–1990)     
6. The Rent-Seeking of the 1990s     
7. The Counter Reforms of the New Century     
8. Argentina: One Way Trip to Collapse     
9. Toward a Competitive Federalism     
10. Vested Interests Blocks Institutional Change     
11. A Way Out for Latin America     

Notes     
Bibliography     
Index