LATIN AMERICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND PRODUCTIVE RESTRUCTURING IN THE LIGHT OF THE ECLAC THEORY

ABSTRACT Throughout the 70 years of ECLAC's existence, the thinking that inspired its main works have been based on the structural historical method and the center-periphery model, according to which the movements of the world’s economy would determine the development of the "peripheral" regions. In the 1990s, the countries in Latin America adhered to the structural adjustment models, bringing about the triumph of neoliberalism. As the economies in the region experienced mediocre industrial performance in the following decade but benefited from the favorable international economic environment of the 2000s, with the expansion of commodity sectors, the debate on the need for regional industrialization in the region is still alive. Thus, this article aims to analyze the structural change in Latin America economies at the beginning of the 21st century, based on ECLAC's contributions. The analysis suggests that the restructuring of Latin American economies has happened in a much complex way and that the understanding of such a process involves the analysis of many variables embodied in ECLAC's vision of development.