A (still) "would-be" country

Abstract

This article explores two hundred years of Argentinean economic and political history, seeking for the causes that might explain why a potentially prosperous country, seen as such thanks to its natural and human resources, has been unable to defeat undervelopment and guarantee its population an acceptable standard of living. An attempt at understanding the evolution of this unusual, "would-be"country includes an analysis of the Spanish colonial legacy, the concentration of rural property, profeteering and speculative practices, the State's poor management, and neoliberal deindustrialization policies.