Post-Neoliberalism and the New Left in the Americas: The Pathways of Economic and Trade Policies

Abstract

Two decades of technocratic reforms in the Latin America and a series of elections have brought fresh administrations to power, indicating the tenor of a new epoch. This seems to be a response to two sets of related challenges: on the one hand, rising mass mobilization and, on the other, social (but not elite) discontent with previous reform strategies, questioned for their failure to generate acceptable levels of growth, to incorporate disenfranchised groups and to promote more equitable patterns of income distribution. The main objective of this chapter is to dissect these questions and place them in the context of the larger debate surrounding the transformations of neoliberalism. Is there an economic policy intrinsic to post-neoliberalism? If so, what are its goals and policy instruments? We assume that such policies require a new balancing act that can address popular dissatisfaction and social equity as issues fully integrated in economic policies. In that light, economic and trade policies should both be central to the identity of post-neoliberalism.