Latin America in turbulent times: Business, finance, and democracy during the 1970s and 1980s

Rising inflation, volatile energy markets, and mounting debt are once again testing the resilience of firms, states, and financial institutions worldwide. These challenges recall the crises of the 1970s and 1980s, when the collapse of Bretton Woods, oil shocks, soaring interest rates and sovereign defaults reshaped global capitalism and unsettled political regimes. Nowhere were these dynamics more visible than in Latin America, a region deeply exposed to external shocks yet also marked by bold experiments in finance, development, and corporate strategies. The articles gathered in this Special Issue examine how local and international actors–ranging from multinationals and domestic business groups to banks and development institutions–adapted to instability and uncertainty. By tracing the entanglements between macroeconomic turbulence, political change, and business decisions, the contributions highlight Latin America’s central role in understanding how crises both constrain and transform the possibilities of finance, entrepreneurship, and governance in a challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical context.