Privatizations in Menem’s Agenda

Abstract

In the last chapter it was argued that President Alfonsín’s government failed to achieve its goals of implementing a policy of privatization: the shortage of both political and institutional resources, as well as a presidential leadership primarily identified with the reconstruction of the post-authoritarian regime conspired against a successful outcome. Thus, the power necessary to implement the privatization policy was not forthcoming during the years of Alfonsín’s administration. This chapter will show that the scene radically changed with the new president’s accession in 1989. The following pages describe how President Carlos Menem built up his political power in a manner that would eventually result in the implementation of one of the most extensive and rapid privatization processes in the world. Indeed, privatization and other structural reforms were introduced amidst a context of hyperinflation, which placed the economy at the top of the government’s list of priorities. If the state’s financial problems were not among those that a democratic transition leader had been prepared to face, a president coming to power in 1989 knew that the economic front was clearly the greatest challenge.