In the past 20 years the Latin American states have undergone tremendous transformations coinciding with the alteration of the structure of political power around the world. A wave of democratization based on open elections has swept through the political systems of the West and of Eastern Europe. Neoliberal political and social reforms followed the reform of the bureaucratic-authoritarian state, and the sovereignty of the state has been weakened under the onslaught of transnational financial institutions. In a process of economic and political integration, regional blocs dominated by the three great powers (the United States, the European Union, and Japan) have emerged with the concentration and centralization of industrial and finance capital in powerful transnational groups. Concomitant with these transformations, on the level of the national state, the power and autonomy of the executive branch have increased. In this article, I will present an approach to the new situation of the modern state and of political power that has resulted from these changes. I will focus on the Latin American nations with the largest economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela), leaving aside for the moment analysis of the Andean nations, Central America, and the Caribbean. I will also reflect on