The study of development in Latin America has been approached from various academic disciplines. Scholars of international political economy have proposed a number of different approaches to study, analyze, and understand the political and institutional constraints that have shaped the development of Latin American countries. They also integrated into the analysis variables such as the influence of international organizations and economic and class history, and its relationship with one of the main characteristics of Latin American countries: the disparity between the rich and the poor. poor. Throughout this work, I intend to summarize and examine four of the most representative theories that have helped shape the study of Latin America's economic development: hegemonic stability, dependency, class analysis and neoliberalism. The need for a more precise theoretical framework [than modernism] to analyze and interpret the causes of development and underdevelopment, and a possible way to explain the persistent poverty of underdeveloped countries gave rise to the theory of dependence. Under the umbrella of this theory is the recognition that the nation-state is part of an international system, and is not a truly independent individual entity. The system consists of two sets of states, generally described as core (developed) countries and satellite (underdeveloped) countries. This theory very clearly states two facts: a) the economic dynamics which result from the relationship between the central and satellite countries do not necessarily translate into growth in the poorest and least industrialized entities, but on the contrary tend to intensify the models uneven development, and b) developed countries were ...... middle of paper ...... the repression of these movements not only failed to suppress the mobilization and demands for change, but " actually helped forge revolutionary coalitions that fought for control of the state.” Left-wing tendency. Since 1990 and 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 like 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 contributed to legitimize a path of government based on the interests of what Marx called the working class.