In the 1980s and 1990s, market reforms swept the world. It is widely believed that the reformist wave can be partly explained in terms of the lessons learned from policy failures of the past. Whereas this interpretation of events is well established, it has never been empirically proved. Learning, Policy Making, and Market Reforms is the first study that tests the impact of policy learning on economic policy choices across time and space. The study supports the popular explanation that, on average, governments around the world adopted privatization and trade liberalization, and sustained open capital accounts, as a result of learning from the experience of others
RESUMEN: Este ensayo tiene como objetivo analizar las actitudes hacia los partidos políticos en tres democracias en pleno proceso de consolidación de sus instituciones. Más concretamente, se trata de averiguar si los partidos políticos en Uruguay, Chile y Argentina gozan o no de aceptación entre la ciudadanía y por ende, de legitimidad para guiar ese proceso de consolidación. Mediante la construcción de un índice de sentimientos hacia los partidos se explora, por un lado, la relación entre estos sentimientos y actitudes más generales hacia el régimen político y, por otro, el posible origen histórico y sociodemográfico de esos sentimientos más o menos entusiastas. Mientras que los partidos son ampliamente aceptados en Uruguay y Argentina, lo son menos en Chile donde además el régimen democrático es más cuestionado y la apatía y desinterés ciudadana más extendidaABSTRACT: This essay analyses the attitudes towards political parties in airee democracies currently facing a process of institutional consolidation. I explore whether political parties in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina have the legitimacy to guide this process by studying their acceptance among the citizenship. I build an índex of sentiments towards political parties and I explore, first, the relationship between these sentiments and more general attitudes towards the political regime and, second, the possible historical and sociodemografic origins of more or less enthusiastic patterns. Parties are highly valued in Uruguay and Argentina and considerably less valued in Chile, where attitudes towards the political regime are also more ambivalent and political apathy more extended.
