Suchergebnisse

The many contradictory interpretations of neoliberalism raise doubts about the value of this concept. This article discusses the literature on neoliberalism for identifying a "minimum common core" that warrants preserving this concept. I argue that neoliberalism entails an ideology and a political practice that aim to subordinate the state and all social domains to the market—to its logic and to the economic powers within it—thereby undermining democracy. This conceptualization emerges as a "common lowest denominator" among many otherwise incompatible scholarly definitions of neoliberalism, reflects central neoliberal ideas (despite their own inconsistencies), and illuminates crucial features of contemporary neoliberal society. I discuss the implications of this interpretation for established democracies and for those countries that experienced democratization processes during the neoliberal era, for the debates on postneoliberalism, and for the political identity of the Left.

This interview with James Ferguson traces his thinking from his groundbreaking The Antipolitics Machine to his newest work on neoliberalism. Ferguson explains how the process of development is above all about building justifications for why more money is needed to fund the next project, thus less about increasing state control or oversight over society than simply about creating more state. Conversely, rather than using the term "neoliberalism" as a political cudgel to condemn structural adjustment policies, Ferguson presses critics to linger over what is actually taking place under post-neoliberal forms of governance.

When Hugo Chávez was president, he pronounced the death of many things—the constitution, the old "partyarchy," Venezuela's "Fourth Republic," and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, among others. Since his own death in 2013, scholars, activists, and citizens have contributed to a rich discussion of his legacy. Part of that legacy is an understanding of post-neoliberalism that recognizes its competing and contradictory components, some of them seeking to complement, improve, and reverse neoliberal policies or overcome neoliberal logics and others constituting important remnants of neoliberalism.Durante su presidencia, Hugo Chávez declaró la muerte de muchas cosas: la constitución, el viejo "partidocracia," la Cuarta República de Venezuela y el Tratado de Libre Comercio de las Américas, entre otros. Desde su muerte en 2013, un grupo variado de estudiosos, activistas y ciudadanos ha llevado a cabo una rica discusión sobre su legado. Una parte importante de su legado es el entender que el post-neoliberalismo tiene componentes contrapuestos y contradictorios, y reconocer que algunos de ellos buscan complementar, mejorar y revertir las políticas neoliberales o superar la lógica neoliberal y otros importantes vestigios constituyentes del neoliberalismo.

Along with other progressive experiments in the region, the government of the Citizens' Revolution has restored the state to a central position with regard to social coordination and the promotion of economic development. The open conflict created by the return of the state between 2007 and 2012 transformed power relationships, allowing civil government to expand the state's relative autonomy and orient it toward constructing a public policy agenda associated with transcending neoliberalism. The challenge of this transition has been to modify the pattern of commodity specialization away from the primacy of primary exports. While reappropriating the surplus that comes from the income from strategic resources increases national sovereignty, it may also contribute to preserving the nation's position in the international division of labor. The National Plan for Living Well aims at overcoming the centrality of the primary sector and of oil exports in the national economy. En convergencia con otros gobiernos progresistas de la region, el gobierno del la Revolución Ciudadana relanza el Estado al primer plano de la coordinación social y la promoción del desarrollo. El conflictivo proceso político abierto en relación a dicho retorno estatal entre 2007 y 2012 trastrocó de los factores de poder y permitió al gobierno civil ampliar la autonomía relativa del Estado y orientarlo hacia la construcción de una agenda de políticas públicas asociada con la superación del neoliberalismo. El desafio de dicha transición reside en la posibilidad de modificar el patrón de especialización productiva más allá de la centralidad de las exportaciones primarias. Aunque la estrategia estatal de reapropriación del excedente que proviene de las rentas de recursos estratégicos eleva los márgenes de soberanía nacional respecto a la determinación global, también puede contribuir a la continuidad del lugar del país en la vigente división internacional del trabajo. El Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir apunta a superar en el mediano plazo la centralidad del sector primario y de las exportaciones petroleras en la economía nacional.

ABSTRACT The idea that states should take on an enhanced role in the pursuit of development is once again becoming increasingly pronounced in the global South. In Latin America, the 'return of the state' is associated with neostructuralism or post‐neoliberalism and the rise of the New Left. Post‐neoliberal projects of governance seek to retain elements of the previous export‐led growth model whilst introducing new mechanisms for social inclusion and welfare. In addition to being a project of growth based on exports and expanded social spending, post‐neoliberalism has a distinctive political character. This article explores the pillars of the new governance project, emphasizing the citizenship claims associated with it, along with some of the tensions that arise from export‐dependent growth, budget limitations, a weak tax base and the difficulties of managing enhanced social expectations. In making their argument, the authors draw on the examples of Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina.

AbstractHow have governments in Latin America been able to counteract two decades of neoliberalism and pursue post-neoliberal developmental reforms, and what tools have they used to do so? We argue that post-neoliberal projects are possible through the use of three necessary conditions in a context of economic bonanza: (1) extensive use of the legal-constitutional framework to facilitate interventionism; (2) an increase in the centrality of public planning agencies to design those policies; and (3) growth of the bureaucracy to implement the policies. Through a case study of Rafael Correa's Ecuador, we show how a constituent assembly, empowerment of the state planning agency, and an increase in the size of the public administration allowed the president to combat neoliberalism and pursue his ambitiousBuen Vivir(Good Living) plan. This simple framework offers important clues for understanding post-liberalism and the return of the state in Ecuador and beyond.

With the ebbing of the pink tide, the MAS government in Bolivia remains as one of the most successful leftist governments that had been elected throughout Latin America since the late 1990s. In order to better understand this surprising success story, this paper analyses the political economy of the post-neoliberal model that has taken shape under MAS rule. More specifically, it looks at the interaction between the strategic orientation and the specific features of economic policy-making in Bolivia, on the one hand, and the evolving relationship of the MAS government with the country's economic elites, on the other. The paper argues that Bolivia's specific version of post-neoliberalism has facilitated increasingly cooperative relations between the government and economic elites, while the latter have themselves contributed to the consolidation of the former. At the same time, the analysis of the political economy of Bolivian post-neoliberalism also reveals its inherent fragility.