Poststabilization Politics In Latin America Competition Transition Collapse Guadalupe Paz by Guadalupe Paz 9780815793830, 0815793839 instant download after payment.

Since the early 1980s Latin America has seen a definitive shift toward civilian rule. Significant trade, fiscal and monetary reforms have accompanied these changes, exposing previously statist economies to the forces of the market. Despite the conventional notion that liberal economic reforms sprang out of necessity, as opposed to an enlightened set of policy choices, the combination of civilian regimes and market-based strategies has proved to be resilient. Economic and political hardships remain, including a debt default in Argentina and an attempted coup in Venezuela; however, the defining themes of open market and liberal politics still dominate in the region. This volume focuses on the effects of market reforms on domestic politics in Latin America. Taking civilian rule as a constant, the contributors examine six countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela) that embraced similar packages of reforms in the 1980s and explore the variation in domestic political responses to these reforms. Specifically, the authors focus on how ambitious reform measures - liberalization, privatization and deregulation - yielded mixed results among these countries. They uncover three principal trends: that of Argentina and Chile, where the implementation of market reforms and increasingly competitive politics have gone hand in hand; that of Brazil and Mexico, where market reforms catalyzed transitions from entrenched authoritarian rule; and that of Peru and Venezuela, where traditional political systems have collapsed and civilian rule has been repeatedly challenged.