Economic Policy after the Transition to Democracy: A Synthesis

Abstract

The 1980s brought enormous changes, both political and economic, to almost all the countries of Latin America. In the political sphere the most important change was the transition to democracy after many years of military dictatorship in a large number of countries. In the economic field we saw — after a severe crisis — reduced inflation, liberalised markets, the start of privatisation and, more generally, measures aimed at radically reducing the participation of the state in the economy. These large economic reforms were accompanied by stabilisation programmes that, superficially, appeared to have more limited objectives.

The author would like to thank Mario Damill, Luis Macadar, Gary McMahon and Carlos Salinas for their valuable suggestions.