Statist vs. pro-market: Explaining leftist governments' economic policies in Latin America

Comparative Politics

Volumn 42, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 413-434

  Flores Macías, Gustavo A ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 77954971510     PISSN: 00104159     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5129/001041510x12911363510033     Document Type: Article

References (135)

1. I am indebted to John Bailey, Jorge Dominguez, Francisco Flores-Macías, Marc Howard, Sarah Kreps, Chappell Lawson, Steven Levitsky, Raúl Madrid, Scott Mainwaring, Kenneth Roberts, Michael Shifter, Arturo Valenzuela, Kurt Weyland, and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts. I am grateful to Georgetown University's Center for Latin American Studies for providing funds for field research, and Harvard University's Rockefeller Center for providing an environment where many of these thoughts came together.
2. Samuel Morley et al., "Indexes of Structural Reform in Latin America," Serie de Reformas Económicas, 12 (Santiago, Chile: UNECLAC, 1999).
3. Sebastian Edwards, Crisis and Reform in Latin America: From Despair to Hope (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1995).
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5. Steve Ellner and Barry Can, "The Changing Status of the Latin American Left in the Recent Past," in The Latin American Left: From the Fall of Allende to Perestroika, ed. Ellner and Carr (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), p. 4.
6. Moreover, leftist incumbents were reelected in Venezuela (2000 and 2006), Chile (2006), Brazil (2006), and Argentina (2007).
7. Jorge Lanzaro, "El Frente Amplio: Un Partido de Coalición, " Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política, 12 (2000): 35-67;
8. Juan Pablo Luna, "Frente Amplio and the Crafting of a Social Democratic Alternative in Uruguay," Latin American Politics and Society, 49 (Winter 2007): 1-30;
9. Vifendy Hunter, "The Normalization of an Anomaly: The Workers' Party in Brazil," World Politics, 59 (April 2007): 440-75.
10. Teodoro Petkoff, "Las dos izquierdas," Nueva Sociedad, 197 (May/June 2005);
11. Franklin Ramírez Gallegos, "Mucho más que dos izquierdas," Nueva Sociedad, 205 (September/October 2006): 30-44.
12. Jorge Castañeda, Utopia Unarmed (New York: Kompf, 1993);
13. Kenneth Roberts, Deepening Democracy? The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998);
14. Hector Schamis, "Populism, Socialism, and Democratic Institutions," Journal of Democracy, 17 (October 2006): 20-34.
15. Matthew Cleary, "A Left Turn in Latin America? Explaining the Left's Resurgence," Journal of Democracy, 17 (October 2006): 35-49;
16. Robert Kauftnan, "Political Economy and the 'New Left,'" in The 'New Left' and Democratic Governance in Latin America, ed. Cynthia Arnson and José Raúl Perales (Washington, DC: WWICS, 2007).
17. A notable exception is Kurt Weyland, "The Rise of Latin America's Two Lefts? Insights from Rentier State Theory," Comparative Politics, 41 (January 2009): 145-64.
18. Schamis, "Populism, Socialism";
19. Steven Levitsky and Kenneth Roberts, "Latin America's Left Turn: A Conceptual and Theoretical Overview,"
20. paper presented at the conference, "Latin America's Left Turn: Political Diversity and Development Alternatives," Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, April 4-5, 2008.
21. Centripetal incentives are those which motivate politicians to take positions closer to the center, while centrifugal incentives have the opposite effect Gary Cox, "Centripetal and Centrifugal Incentives in Electoral Systems," American Journal of Political Science, 34 (November 1990): 903-35.
22. Castañeda, Utopia Unarmed;
23. Kaufman, "Political Economy";
24. Weyland, "Latin America's Two Lefts?"
25. La Razón, "Morales nacionaliza el negocio del gas y toma el control de 5 compañías," May 1, 2006;
26. and "Evo nacionaliza 4 petroleras y Entel por decreto y compra," May 2, 2008.
27. La Razón, "El control de precios da sus primeros resultados," August 21, 2007.
28. La Razón, "El gobierno expropiará 180 mil has. en Chuquisaca," December 3, 2008.
29. El Comercio, "El Estado embarga bienes de Odebrecht," September 24, 2008.
30. El Comercio, "Carchi: Sigue el alza de precios," September 9, 2008.
31. El Comercio, "Autonomía del Banco Central del Ecuador en la cuerda floja," January 18, 2009.
32. Hoy, "Viteri anuncia para 2009 plan para renegociar deuda en mora," December 23, 2008.
33. El Universal, "Chávez ordenó nacionalizar CANTVy el sector eléctrico," January 9, 2007.
34. El Nacional, "Cadenas comerciales resisten control de precios," October 15, 2005, for price controls; Gaceta Oficial N° 37.625, "Decreto No. 2.302, 2003, February 5, 2003, for exchange controls.
35. El Nacional, "Ley de Tierras fue el primer impulso del modelo socialista," December 9, 2008.
36. Wendy Hunter and Timothy Power, "Lula's Brazil at Mid-term," Journal of Democracy, 16 (July 2005): 127-39.
37. El Pais, "Una reforma que pegará en los bolsillos y en las umas," July 1, 2007.
38. World Bank, World Bank Privatizations Database (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007).
39. Weyland, "Latin America's Two Lefts?"
40. See El Clarín, "Kirchner criticó a supermercados y salieron a responderle," November 24, 2005;
41. Página 12, "Puntapié inicial para la salida del default," October 8, 2004;
42. El Clarín, "Oficializaron la estatización de las jubilaciones privadas," December 9, 2008.
43. Joan Nelson, "The Politics of Economic Transformation: Is Third World Experience Relevant in Eastern Europe?" World Politics, 45 (April 1993): 433-64;
44. Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman, The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).
45. Nelson, "Politics of Economic Transformation," p. 436.
46. Stephen Holmes, "The Politics of Economics in the Czech Republic," East European Constitutional Review, 4 (Spring 1995): 52-55.
47. Delia Ferreira Rubio and Matteo Goretti, "When the President Governs Alone: the Decretazo in Argentina, 1989-93," in Executive Degree Authority, ed. John Carey and Matthew Shugart (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
48. Brian Crisp, "Lessons from Economic Reform in the Venezuelan Democracy," Latin American Research Review, 33 (1998): 7-43.
49. Arturo Valenzuela, "Latin American Presidencies Interrupted," Journal of Democracy, 15 (October 2004): 5-19;
50. Matthew Shugart and Stephan Haggard, "Institutions and Public Policy in Presidential Systems," in Presidents, Parliaments, and Policy, ed. Haggard and Matthew D. McCubbins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 80. These presidents' subsequent strengthening was possible due to institutional weakness.
51. Allan Drazen and Vittorio Grilli, "The Benefit of Crises for Economic Reform," American Economic Review, 83 (June 1993): 598-608;
52. Karen Remmer, "The Politics of Neoliberal Economic Reform in South America, 1980-1994," Studies in Comparative International Development, 33 (Summer 1998): 3-29.
53. For a critique of this view, see Javier Corrales, "Do Economic Crises Contribute to Economic Reform? Argentina and Venezuela in the 1990s," Political Science Quarterly, 112 (Winter 1997): 617-44.
54. Remmer, "Neoliberal Economic Reform," p. 10.
55. John Waterbury, "The Heart of the Matter? Public Enterprise and the Adjustment," in The Politics of Economic Adjustment, ed. Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).
56. Corrales, "Economic Crises."
57. Kurt Weyland, "Swallowing the Bitter Pill: Sources of Popular Support for Neoliberal Reform in Latin America," Comparative Political Studies, 31 (October 1998): 539-68.
58. Kurt Weyland, "Growing Sustainability in Brazil's Democracy," in The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America, ed. Francis Hagopian and Scott Mainwaring (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
59. Moisés Naím, Paper Tigers and Minotaurs: The Politics of Venezuelas Economic Reforms (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1993).
60. The source of all statistics presented in this article, unless otherwise noted, is World Bank, World Development Indicators (Online Resource, 2008).
61. Michael Shafer, Winners and Losers: How Sectors Shape the Developmental Prospects of States (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994);
62. Terri Karl, The Paradox of the Plenty: Oil Booms and PetroStates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997);
63. Michael Ross, "The Political Economy of the Resource Curse," World Politics, 51 (January 1999): 297-322;
64. Prateek Goorha, "The Political Economy of the Resource Curse in Russia," Demokratizatsiya, 14 (Fall 2006): 601-11;
65. Weyland, "Latin America's Two Lefts?"
66. Ross, "Resource Curse."
67. Weyland, "Latin America's Two Lefts?"
68. Michael Ross, Timber Booms and Institutional Breakdown in South East Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
69. Karl, Paradox of Plenty.
70. Goorha, "Resource Curse in Russia."
71. Helene Norberg and Magnus Blomström, "Dutch Disease and Management of Windfall Gains in Botswana," in Economic Crisis in Africa: Perspectives on Policy Responses, ed. Magnus Blomström and Mats Lundahl (New York: Routledge, 1993).
72. The Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Bolivia, January 2008, p. 11;
73. Global Insight, Ecuador Country Monitor, January 2008, p. 55.
74. UNECLAC, Table 2.2.3.18.
75. Ross, "Resource Curse," p. 310.
76. El Diario, "Gobierno acelera entrega de tierras a Jindal y acelera expropiaciones," February 5, 2009.
77. El Comercio, "Repsol hace maletas, Petrobras se queda," November 11, 2008.
78. Ministerio de Hacienda de Chile, Dirección de Presupuesto, "Director de Presupuesto Informa sobre Ejecución Presupuestaria del Gobierno Central y Activos Financieros del Tesoro Público de 2006," January 31, 2007.
79. UNECLAC, Table 2.2.3.18.
80. Giovanni Sartori, Parties and Party Systems (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976);
81. Robert Dix, "Democratization and the Institutionalization of Latin American Political Parties," Comparative Political Studies, 24 (January 1992): 488-511;
82. Scott Mainwaring and Timothy Scully, "Introduction," in Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America, ed. Mainwaring and Scully (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995).
83. Mainwaring and Scully, "Introduction."
84. Haggard and Kaufman, Democratic Transitions;
85. Schamis, "Populism, Socialism."
86. Scott Mainwaring, Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wve of Democratization: The Case of Brazil (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999), p. 6.
87. Mainwaring and Scully, "Introduction."
88. Pippa Norris, "Recruitment," in Handbook of Party Politics, ed. Richard Katz and William Crotty (London: Sage, 2006), p. 104.
89. Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organization and Power (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 25.
90. Scott Mainwaring and Mariano Torcal, "Party System Institutionalization and Party System Theory after the Third Wave of Democratization," in Katz and Crotty, p. 216.
91. Vicky Randall and Lars Svåsand. "Party Institutionalization in New Democracies," Party Politics, 8 (January 2002), p. 19.
92. Mainwaring and Scully, "Introduction," p. 27.
93. Sartori, Parties and Party Systems, p. 135.
94. Guillermo O'Donnell, "Delegative Democracy," Journal of Democracy, 5 (January 1994), p. 59.
95. George Tsebelis, Veto Players (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), p. 58.
96. Guillermo O'Donnell, "Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies," Journal of Democracy, 9 (July 1998), p.112.
97. O'Donnell, "Delegative Democracy," p. 58.
98. For a discussion on the strong correlation between the two, see Kenneth Roberts and Erick Wibbels, "Party Systems and Electoral Volatility in Latin America," American Political Science Review, 93 (September 1999): 575-90.
99. The sources for this classification of party systems are Mark Jones, "Political Parties and Party Systems in Latin America," paper prepared for the symposium, "Prospects for Democracy in Latin America," University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, April 5-6, 2007, which considers the time period for the two legislative elections preceding the rise to power of the left;
100. and Mainwaring and Torcal, "Party System Institutionalization," which considers a longer time period, from the return of civilian rule in each country to the rise of the left In both cases, the classification of party systems is the same, with the exception of Uruguay, which was not included in Mainwaring and Torcal's classification.
101. FT, "Ruling party rules out more pension concessions," July 21, 2003.
102. Hunter, "Workers' Party in Brazil," p. 470.
103. . When Chávez became president of Venezuela, he controlled only one-third of congress. In Ecuador, Correa's "Alianza Pals" did not register a single congressional candidate. Only in Bolivia did a leftist administration garner enough legislative seats to claim 50 percent of the seats in the lower house, although the opposition remained in control of the Senate.
104. Roberto Funk, ed., El Gobierno de Ricardo Lagos (Santiago, Chile: Universidad Diego Portales, 2006), p. 23.
105. Shugart and Haggard, "Presidential Systems," p. 80.
106. Peter Siavelis, "Exaggerated Presidentialism and Moderate Presidents: Executive Legislative Relations in Chile," in Legislative Politics in Latin America, ed. Scott Morgenstern and Benito Nacif (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 81.
107. Ministerio de Hacienda.
108. J. Samuel Valenzuela and Timothy Scully, "Electoral Choices and the Party System in Chile," Comparative Politics, 29 (July 1997): 511-27;
109. The disastrous campaign of Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a supermarket tycoon-cum-populist who founded the Progressive Union of the Center Center Party is a case in point.
110. Timothy Scully, "Chile: The Political Underpinnings of Economic Liberalization," in Constructing Democratic Governance: South America in the 1990s, ed. Jorge I. Domínguez and Abraham F. Lowenthal (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996): 99-117.
111. Angell, "Party Change in Chile."
112. Scully, "Chile: Political Underpinnings."
113. Ibid, p. 113.
114. Arturo Valenzuela and Lucía Dammert, "Problems of Success in Chile," Journal of Democracy, 17 (October 2006), p. 70.
115. La Tercera, "Gobierno acuerda eliminar aspecto clave del Plan Auge para aprobación en el Senado," May 13, 2004.
116. Rossana Castiglioni, "Cambios y continuidad en política social," in Funk, 2006;
117. Valenzuela and Dammert, "Problems of Success," p. 70.
118. Shugart and Haggard, "Presidential Systems," p.80.
119. Crisp, "Lessons from Economic Reform."
120. Michael Penfold, "Clientelism and Social Funds: Evidence of Chavez's Misiones," Latin American Politics and Society, 49 (Winter 2007): 63-84.
121. El Universal, "El Congreso considerará observaciones del ejecutivo," April 7, 1999.
122. El Universal, "Otorgan fondos para el avalúo del Banco de Venezuela," December 19, 2008.
123. Tal Cual Digital, "Venezuela y Rusia explotarán el gran yacimiento de oro de Las Cristinas," January 14, 2009.
124. Kenneth Roberts, "Party System Demise and Populist Resurgence in Venezuela," Latin American Politics and Society, 45 (Fall 2003): 35-57;
125. Daniel Levine, "Good-bye to Venezuelan Exceptionalism," Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 36 (Winter 1994): 145-82.
126. Aníbal Romero, "Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic: The Agony of Democracy in Venezuela," Latin American Research Review, 32:1 (1997): 7-36.
127. Jennifer McCoy, "Chávez and the End of 'Partyarchy' in Venezuela," Journal of Democracy, 10 (July 1999): 64-77.
128. Interview with COPEI's Secretary General, Luis Ignacio Planas, in Caracas, March 2007.
129. El Universal, "Nuevas Amenazas Ameritan Intervención de la OEA," April 12, 1999.
130. Notitarde, "Comisión Bicameral de Finanzas Aprobó Reformas a la Habilitante," April 22, 1999.
131. Weyland, "Latin America's Two Lefts?"
132. Mainwaring, "Rethinking Party Systems," p. 7.
133. Mainwaring and Torcal, "Party System Industrialization," p. 209.
134. Schamis, "Populism, Socialism."
135. Connor O'Dwyer and Branislav Kovalčík, "Party System Institutionalization and Second-Generation Economic Reform in Postcommunist Europe," Studies in Comparative International Development, 41 (Winter 2007): 3-26.