Pressures to Privatize? The IMF, Globalization, and Partisanship in Latin America

In: Political research quarterly: PRQ ; official journal of the Western Political Science Association and other associations, Band 65, Heft 3, S. 572-585

Abstract

Despite pervasive downward pressure on government policy from exogenous forces, the author argues that partisanship still exerts an effect on privatization in Latin America. When a country is indebted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and a government of the right is in power, scholars can expect increased levels of privatization. However, when a country is indebted to the IMF and a government of the left is in power, electoral incentives will prompt these governments to ignore IMF pressure and reduce levels of privatization. The author tests this argument on a data set of eighteen Latin American countries, between the years 1984 and 1998.