Abstract
President Juan José Arévalo (1945–1951) usually receives the credit for initiating import-substituting industrialization in Guatemala. He passed the country's firt industrial development law and created state institutions designed to diversify the economy. Although these reforms created an environnment in which industry could prosper, the results fell far short of expectations. Industry grew at impressive rates between 1945 and 1954, but the economy was not radically restructured.
Poor relations between the industrial bourgeoisie and the government hindered the industrialization effort. For the most part, the bourgeoisie applauded the new industrial policy but disapproved of the government's social reforms. The government's commitment to radical social reform convinced the bourgeoisie that communists controlled the government. In the end, industrialists refused to cooperate and industrial productivity declined. Industrial performance during the revolutionary decade, therefore, must be analyzed within the tense political environment in which the industrialists operated.