Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T10:17:17.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing Latin American Neoliberalism: Introduction to a Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Kurt Weyland
Kurt Weyland*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The present set of Research Notes, which were first presented at a forum on Latin America's market reforms held at the 2003 Latin American Studies Association Congress, investigates the economic and social repercussions of the neoliberal wave that swept across the region during the 1990s. Have market reforms brought greater economic stability and stimulated growth? How have they affected crucial social issues, such as unemployment, poverty, and inequality? After Weyland's introductory explication of these questions, the Research Notes by Evelyne Huber and Fred Solt and by Michael Walton advance divergent assessments of neoliberalism's successes and failures. Huber and Solt argue that overall, Latin America's market reforms have yielded disappointing results in terms of economic stability and growth, social equity, and the quality of democracy. In particular, countries that enacted more radical reforms or that took especially drastic steps towards change performed less well than nations that proceeded more cautiously and gradually. By contrast, Walton argues that market reforms have increased growth while not significantly exacerbating economic instability and social inequality. And to the extent that neoliberalism fell short of expectations, the problem did not emerge from market reforms as such, but from deficiencies in the institutional context in which these reforms were enacted.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , 2004 , pp. 143 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the University of Texas Press

References

Berry, Albert 1997 “The Income Distribution Threat in Latin America.” Latin American Research Review 32 (2): 3–40.Google Scholar
Bresser Pereira, Luiz Carlos, Maravall, José María, and Przeworski, Adam 1993 Economic Reform in New Democracies: A Social-Democratic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins, and Collier, David 1991 Shaping the Political Arena. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas (CEPAL) 1997 La brecha de la equidad. Santiago de Chile: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas.Google Scholar
Conaghan, Catherine, and Malloy, James 1994 Unsettling Statecraft: Democracy and Neoliberalism in the Central Andes. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Corrales, Javier 2002 Presidents without Parties: The Politics of Economic Reform in Argentina and Venezuela in the 1990s. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
De Ferranti, David, Perry, Guillermo, Ferreira, Francisco, and Walton, Michael 2004 Inequality in Latin America: Breaking with History. Washington, DC: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, Kent 2002 Politicians and Economic Reform in New Democracies: Argentina and the Philippines in the 1990s. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Garretón, Manuel Antonio, Cavarozzi, Marcelo, Cleaves, Peter, Gereffi, Gary, and Hartlyn, Jonathan 2003 Latin America in the Twenty-First Century: Toward a New Sociopolitical Matrix. Coral Gables, FL: North-South Center Press, University of Miami.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert 1995 The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert, eds. 1992 The Politics of Economic Adjustment. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Webb, Steven, eds. 1994 Voting for Reform: Democracy, Political Liberalization, and Economic Adjustment. New York: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Hagopian, Frances 1998 “Democracy and Political Representation in Latin America in the 1990s.” In Fault Lines of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America, edited by Agüero, Felipe and Stark, Jeffrey, 85–120. Coral Gables, FL: North-South Center Press, University of Miami.Google Scholar
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) 1998 Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 1998–99 Report: Facing Up to Inequality in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Kingstone, Peter 1999 Crafting Coalitions for Reform: Business Preferences, Political Institutions, and Neoliberal Reform in Brazil. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Kurtz, Marcus 2004 Free Market Democracy and the Chilean and Mexican Countryside. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Londoño, Juan Luis, and Székely, Miguel 2000 “Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970–1995.” Journal of Applied Economics 3:93–134 (May).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madrid, Raúl 2003 Retiring the State: The Politics of Pension Privatization in Latin America and Beyond. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Morley, Samuel 2001 The Income Distribution Problem in Latin America and the Caribbean. Santiago de Chile: CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe. Naciones Unidas).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murillo, María Victoria 2001 Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Joan, ed. 1990 Economic Crisis and Policy Choice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxhorn, Philip 1998 “Is the Century of Corporatism Over? Neoliberalism and the Rise of Neopluralism.” In What Kind of Democracy? What Kind of Market? Latin America in the Age of Neoliberalism, edited by Oxhorn, Philip and Ducatenzeiler, Graciela, 195–217. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Hoffman, Kelly 2003 “Latin American Class Structures: Their Composition and Change during the Neoliberal Era.” Latin American Research Review 38 (1): 41–82. (February).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, Jeffrey 2001 “‘Painful Exit’: Electoral Abstention and Neoliberal Reform in Latin America.” Paper presented at the XXIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Washington, DC, September 6–8.Google Scholar
Sheahan, John 1997 “Effects of Liberalization Programs on Poverty and Inequality: Chile, Mexico, and Peru.” Latin American Research Review 32 (3): 7–37.Google Scholar
Smith, William, Acuña, Carlos, and Gamarra, Eduardo, eds. 1994 Democracy, Markets, and Structural Reform in Latin America. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Snyder, Richard 2001 Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stallings, Barbara, and Peres, Wilson 2000 Growth, Employment, and Equity: The Impact of the Economic Reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan 2001 Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teichman, Judith 2001 The Politics of Freeing Markets in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Weller, Jürgen 2001 Economic Reforms, Growth and Employment. Santiago de Chile: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyland, Kurt 2002 The Politics of Market Reform in Fragile Democracies: Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Mark 2001 Market Reforms in Mexico: Coalitions, Institutions, and the Politics of Policy Change. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Williamson, John, ed. 1994 The Political Economy of Policy Reform. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Wodon, Quentin 2000 Poverty and Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank 1998 Beyond the Washington Consensus: Institutions Matter. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar