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“We Have a Consensus”: Explaining Political Support for Market Reforms in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Leslie Elliott Armijo  and
Philippe Faucher
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Abstract

By the 1990s, to the astonishment of many observers, most Latin American countries had reformed their systems of national economic governance along market lines. Many analysts of this shift have assumed that it circumvented normal political processes, presuming that such reforms could not be popular. Explanations emphasizing economic crisis, external assistance, and politically insulated executives illustrate this approach. Through a qualitative investigation of the reform process in the region's four most industrialized countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, this study argues, to the contrary, that reforming governments found or created both elite and mass political support for their policies.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , Summer 2002 , pp. 1 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2002

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