The study of development in Latin America has been approached by a variety of academic disciplines. International political economy scholars have provided a number of different approaches to studying, analyzing, and understanding the political and institutional constraints that have shaped the development of Latin American countries. They also incorporated into the analysis variables such as the influence of international organizations and economic and class history, and its relationship to one of the main characteristics of Latin American countries: the disparity between rich and poor. In this work, I intend to summarize and review four of the most representative theories that have contributed to shaping the study of Latin American economic development: hegemonic stability, dependency, class analysis and neoliberalism. The need for a more accurate theoretical framework, [than modernism] to analyze and interpret the causes of development and underdevelopment, and a possible way of explaining the incessant poverty of underdeveloped countries gave rise to dependency theory. Under the umbrella of this theory is the recognition that the nation state is part of an international system, and is not an individual, truly independent entity. The system consists of two groups of states, generally described as core (developed) countries and satellite (underdeveloped) countries. This theory states very clearly two facts: a) the economic dynamics resulting from the relationship between core countries and satellite countries does not necessarily translate into growth in the poorest and least industrialized entities, but instead tends to intensify unequal development models, and b) developed countries were… middle of paper… the repression of these movements not only failed to quell mobilization and demands for change, but “actually helped forge revolutionary coalitions fighting for control of the State". The social hardship suffered as a result of class inequality in most Latin American countries has evolved into a stable and more organized electoral system. Left-wing tendency. Starting in 1990 and continuing until the early 2000s, countries such as Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, and Bolivia elected political leaders from left-wing parties. Although circumstances are different for each country, the performances of presidents such as Michelle Bachelet and Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva and even Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez (at the very beginning of the movements that brought them to power) have helped legitimize a way of government based on the interests of what Marx called the working class.