The structural nature of underdevelopment in Peru

Abstract

Peru remains an underdeveloped country, although in recent decades
the real Gross Domestic Product has increased substantially. The country
cannot develop if the structural conditions of underdevelopment have not
been eliminated. One of the main reasons for Peru’s underdevelopment is
the country’s role in the globalized capitalist world as a provider of natural resources for economic development in the global north. This role is not the
consequence of their possession of abundant raw materials necessary for
capitalist development in this area, but rather the historical result of having
their own (capitalist) development disrupted by colonial exploitation and
oppression. The current economic development model is closely related
to Peru’s role in the international division of labor. The country’s economic
and business structures are, in part, internal expressions of the country’s
function in the globalized capitalist world. These economic and business
structures do not allow economic progress and make current economic
development unsustainable. The Peruvian State is a dependent capitalist
state, which has the general characteristics of the capitalist state and the
characteristics that are a product of the country’s role in the capitalist world
system and the dependent nature of its economy. The main function of
the dependent capitalist state is to reproduce the basic conditions for the
functioning of the dependent national capitalist system.