Transnational development: The changing relationship between the state, transnational corporations, and local firms in Chile and Argentina, 1970--2000

The thesis analyses the changes in the relationship between the state, transnational corporations (TNCs) and local capital during the 1970–2000 period in Chile and Argentina. In the 1970s, Peter Evans' theory of the triple alliance portrayed this relationship as a three-way developmental alliance led by the state. Using a historical institutionalist approach, the thesis asks what happened to the classic triple alliance between 1970 and 2000 in Chile and Argentina? The mining sector is used as a case study of this transformation.; The neoliberal economic policies pursued by the dictatorships in Chile (1973–1990) and Argentina (1976–1983) began a process that profoundly transformed the nature of the triple alliance. Privatization and trade and investment liberalization changed the structure and strategies of the state, transnational corporations, and local capital. The result was the astounding growth of local capital, the strengthening of the TNC presence and TNC-local ties, and the reduction of the state's direct role in the economy. The investment incentives generated by the neoliberal economy reoriented firm strategy away from manufacturing for the domestic market and into public services and the exploitation of natural resources.; As a result, by the late 1990s the triple alliance had been transformed into what may be termed the elite-business axis. Its core was joint-ventures between the largest foreign and local conglomerates (grupos económicos). Unlike the triple alliance, the state played a marginal role. Just as Evans' triple alliance influenced the character of Brazil's dependent development in the 1970s, the elite-business axis of the 1990s influenced a style of development that may be termed transnational development.; The contours of transnational development are the following: economic development based on the strategies pursued by the elite-business axis (especially transnational corporations); the inversion of relative bargaining power characteristic of the import-substitution era; the reduction of the state role in the economy; a harmony of interests between the state and the private sector; and modernization without industrialization of the economy.