Resumo

LAZO CIVIDANES, Jorge  e  ROJAS, Miguel. After Radicalism, Sensibleness?: The Turn to the Left and Economic Policy in Latin America . Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2008, vol.14, n.3, pp.496-512. ISSN 1315-9518.

This article analyzes the impact that the emergence of new governments of the left in Latin America have had on the economic policies applied in the region. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, many political parties from the left gained power in Latin America. Their leaders and many other left-leaning observers have criticized the presumed negative consequences of neoliberal reforms in very harshest terms. This article presents and discusses social and economic data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, countries where the left leads government, and from two contrasting cases, Colombia and Mexico, where governments are controlled by center-right parties. Taking central aspects of the structural reforms of the decade of the 90s as a reference, the analysis suggests that the newly-arrived leftist governments have not changed economic policy substantially, contradicting the fierce anti-neoliberal rhetoric that characterized many leaders of the Latin American Left while campaining for office. The article suggests some hypotheses that may explain this behaviour.

Palavras-chave : Neo-liberalism; political Left; economic policy; Latin America; Washington Consensus.