common features of industrializing work forces everywhere; the struggle among employers and political and military leaders to capture or control the organization of workers is dramatically outlined in the experience of Brazil under Vargas and Argentina during Perón; the influence of economic limitations, including the international balance of payments, on an industrial relations system is well illustrated in these countries. But these general themes should not be allowed to obscure the rich detail and variations among the countries, which are carefully portrayed. This type of study is vital to discussions of private and public policy making in the United States concerned with our relations to Latin America. Far too frequently our labor unions and businesses, and our governmental representatives too, have tried to export "free trade unions" and "private enterprise." These large labels have not sold very well, nor are they likely to be more acceptable in the future. However, there are some features of our labor organizations--such as concern with plant level grievances, the education of labor leaders, and welfare activities--which may be of genuine interest in modified form in a Latin American context. Similarly, there are some aspects of our organization of business--such as the emergence of pro- fessional managers, the importance of management education in university programs, the personnel staff, and the limits to bureaucratic government and the significance of the market--which may be adapted to Latin Amer- ican experience and problems. Professor Alexander's volume should help us to understand that the attempt to transplant wholesale our cherished institutions is futile, but that some of our labor-management-government arrangements may be assimilated and adapted in other countries embarking on the road to industrialism. Professor Alexander brings to this volume fifteen years of interest and experience in Latin American labor-management-government relations. He has traveled widely and written extensively in this area. This volume re- flects not only extensive study of documents and the literature, but a period of intensive interviews for this volume in each of the three countries with local and foreign managers, labor leaders, government representatives, and those in political and academic circles. This study is part of the Inter-University Study of Labor Problems in Economic Development. 1 AUGUST, 1961 JOHN T. DUNLOP ____________________ | 1 | For a summary, see Clark Kerr, John T. Dunlop, Frederick Harbison, and Charles A. Meyers, Industrialism and Industrial Man, The Problems of Labor and Management in Economic Growth ( Cambridge, 1960). | -viii- |