As we have seen, global capitalism is in crisis and each region does its best to wiggle within it. The diagnosis and the proposals multiply. It is important to take stock of the different views and ask: What is Latin America's destiny in this new world?

The recent publication of William I. Robinson's Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective that tries to think “outside the box” about the predicament and the options for Latin America allows me to survey the field of interpretations of the world crisis and the region's position within it. This volume is part of a welcome turn to the classic roots of political economy. In it “globalization” refers to the dynamics of late capitalism, an economic system that now covers the entire planet and “critical” means that the system must be examined in terms of costs and benefits, potentiality and actuality.

Taking Positions

The field of globalization studies is organized around a set of questions about late capitalism and its various articulations in different areas—in this case Latin America. The situation of the field has been well stated by Eric Hobsbawm, who maintains that the paradigm capitalism/socialism is over. Moreover, the failure of socialism preceded the bankruptcy of capitalism. In fact, the socialist collapse may have precipitated the current capitalist crisis by launching an unopposed search for cheap labor—with the consequent migration of industry to hitherto out-of-bounds nations—and the overspecialization of former industrial countries in the service sector, including financial speculation and leveraged consumption.