Este artículo analiza las trayectorias de modernización estructural para la industria de ocho países latinoamericanos (Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, México, Perú, Uruguay) desde 1970 hasta la fecha. Desde una perspectiva teórica estructuralista que explora las interacciones dinámicas entre el cambio estructural y el escalamiento tecnológico, se construye un índice de modernización. Los hallazgos muestran que el establecimiento de modelos económicos neoliberales en Latinoamérica a partir de los años ochenta, significó un punto de ruptura en estas trayectorias. Mientras la racionalización de procesos productivos por parte de las empresas implicó un desplazamiento del empleo en dirección de usos de baja productividad relativa, el desarrollo de industrias intensivas en capital e insertas en dinámicas globales, no impulsó la modernización estructural debido a la naturaleza de las tareas efectuadas. Los ejercicios permiten esbozar una primera tipología en términos de las carencias más apremiantes de cada caso.

This paper analyses the influence of political regimes on the level and economic composition of military expenditure in Spain over the long run. In contrast with the widely accepted negative relation between democracy and military spending, the paper suggests that democratic governments established in the late 1970s and early 1980s after Franco’s dictatorship had a positive influence on the military burden owing to the efforts to reorient the army towards international threats and to involve the armed forces with the newly democratic institutions. In addition, the analysis of military expenditure allows us to conclude that the international orientation of democratic military policies took place along with financial efforts to obtain a capital-intensive army to confront international military threats.

Long run economic progress in modern Spain is assessed in this paper and its performance placed in European perspective. Over one and a half centuries, income per person rose 15 times. Three main phases can be established: 1850–1950, 1951–1974 and 1975–2000. Spain underperformed in the long run mostly due to its sluggish growth in specific phases of the century prior to 1950. Catching up took place in the late twentieth century, in which the years 1959–74 stand out. Structural change contributed significantly to growth acceleration while lack of exposition to international competition represents a recurrent element of retardation.

This paper analyses the demographic decline experienced by Spain's 84 main mountainous districts, which cover more than 20 per cent of the national surface and had 15 per cent of the country's total population in 1860. In Spain, mountain depopulation took place later than in other, more advanced European countries. However, once it started, the process was very intense in comparative perspective. Depopulation became a general phenomenon during the second half of the twentieth century as a consequence of significant shortcomings in rural welfare – these shortcomings were related in turn to low degrees of economic diversification and high levels of pertalty on the access to basic equipment and services. Furthermore, depopulation acted as a mechanism for economic selection because it contributed to the disappearance of the traditional peasant economy and the «default» emergence of more diversified patterns.