Bursting the Microfinance Bubble

Post-capitalist declarations aside Venezuela''s President Hugo Chávez and Bolivian President Evo Morales have both recently introduced their own state-run microfinance banks. To fully grasp the nature of the Bolivarian Revolution''s new social economic paradigm it is first necessary though to consider how and why capitalist systems differ in an institutional manner. Accordingly the following research will employ a French Regulation School theoretical scope which offers a holistic systematic approach for explaining productive logics in particular capitalist evolution or non-evolution over time. Attempts to classify the diverse nature of capitalist varieties in today''s neoliberal era have in fact largely ignored the Third World experience. By mapping the interactions between growth patterns institutional compromises and social norms underpinning periods of capitalist stability in Latin America this paper will move beyond current theorization on the historical trajectory of capitalism to identify a hybrid rentier growth model.