‘Post-neoliberalism’ in the International Division of Labour: The Divergent Cases of Ecuador and Venezuela

Resumen

The global rise in primary commodity prices in recent years has put the question of the use of income from natural resources for developmental goals back on the political agenda across Latin America. Purcell examines the distinction between agricultural and mining landownership, in the context of global transformation associated with the international division labour, so as to explain the developmental trajectories of Ecuador and Venezuela. He argues that dual landlordism in Ecuador—in the form of an agro-export elite and a state-controlled oil sector—contrasts with the singular dominance of the state-controlled oil sector in Venezuela, and this, for Purcell, explains the manner in which the two national forms of insertion into the international division of labour have determined different national variants of ‘post-neoliberalism’.