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This article is a case study that shows the difficulty and complexity of
structural adjustment by examining in great detail the reform of a single
programme, the promotion of industrial investment in the less developed regions
of Argentina. The article describes how the programme grew after 1956 when
industrial promotion was first implemented so the reader can fully understand its
intricate complexity. The reform process is described in detail, from the time that
officials first became aware that the program was costing several percent of GDP
to the present. Changing the system was an elaborate process of thrust and parry
and counterthrust by government reformers and entrenched supporters of the old
regime. The Congress, the Supreme Court, provincial officials and various
international institutions were all able to exert considerable influence over the
pace and nature of reform. The reform effort also illustrates the role of a free press
and public opinion. A cadre of economists working within the government and
in private research institutes carried out an effective campaign to inform the
public about the programme's excesses. The end result is a precarious and far
from simple or transparent, though decidedly less expensive, set of compromises
that pleases no one.