Based on a classical political economy, on Latin American structuralism, and on Gramscian perspective about the state this paper argues that national economic strategies are formed by particular interactions between institutions and economic structures and evolve according to social conflicts in a non neutral international environment. This idea is explored to interpret the rise of the developmental state in some national development strategies experienced by peripheral countries during the highest convergence period of the Golden Age and its crisis and redefinitions during the greatest divergence phase and neoliberal reforms of the last two decades of the 20th century.