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Consensus Found, Consensus Lost: Disjunctures in US Policy Toward Latin America at the Turn of the Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Howard J. Wiarda
Howard J. Wiarda*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington (DC)
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Extract

After the great ideological debates of the 1970s and 1980s and the domestic “war” (there is no better term) over Central America policy, a quite remarkable consensus had emerged in the 1990s regarding United States policy in Latin America. The new consensus was surprisingly bipartisan, having been largely continuous from the Bush to the Clinton administrations and actually having its origins in the even earlier Carter and Reagan administrations. For those who remember the rancorous, divisive battles, stretching back over two decades, over such issues as human rights, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, the emergence of a consensus on US foreign policy towards Latin America was nothing short of astounding. There are three basic elements in this new consensus, usually referred to as the "Washington Consensus," all interrelated:

  1. (1) an emphasis on furthering democracy and human rights;

  2. (2) an emphasis on free (or at least “fair”) trade and economic integration; and

  3. (3) an emphasis on open markets, state downsizing, and privatization: i.e., on capitalism or neoliberalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 39 , Issue 1: Special Issue: US-Latin American Relations , Spring 1997 , pp. 13 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1997

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