Over the last four decades, the role of the extractive sector in the development models of Venezuela and Ecuador has changed significantly. This study examines how class struggle affected the role of rent within three divergent development models: import substitution industrialization (ISI)-corporatist, neoliberal-fragmented, and rentier-controlling. It argues that the attitude of the capitalist class towards the state and the working class was crucial in the transition from the ISI-corporatist model to the neoliberal-fragmented model. It led to a process of privatization in the oil industry and competition among capitalists for rent. In response to the social consequences of this shift, the left-wing governments reclaimed state ownership of hydrocarbon resources and obtained more rent in efforts to recover some state autonomy. A more unified capitalist class in Venezuela reacted more aggressively to this transformation of the social property relations around hydrocarbons, while in contrast, a more divided capitalist class in Ecuador reacted more mildly. However, both governments redistributed rent and created subservient popular sector organizations in order to curb popular power as well as offset the power of the capitalist class. In contrast to some analyses of extractivism, this paper takes a class perspective that emphasizes the changing role of resource extraction within different development models despite outward appearances of continuity.