Liberalization in the Developing World
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LIBERALIZATION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD Liberalization in the Developing World compares the success of liberalization strategies in Asia, Africa and Latin America over the past decade. Three models emerge, corresponding to the three continents covered, which reflect the degree of state intervention in the economy and the success of liberalization policies adopted. In East Asia, where liberalization policies have been most successful, it is shown that a period of relative autonomy from the world economy preceded export-led industrialization and, contrary to free market paradigms, economic growth involved a high degree of state intervention in conjunction with national conglomerates. Like the East Asian ‘tigers’, Latin American countries also underwent a period of import-substitution in the 1970s but in the 1980s political democratization and market liberalization were not accompanied by miraculous economic growth. Finally, case studies of countries in Africa illustrate how neoliberal policies have been most ambiguous where the state has been ‘persuaded’, through conditionality from the Bretton Woods institutions, to take a back seat and let international market forces decide. The conclusions drawn demonstrate that economic and political liberalization do not have to go hand in hand. On the contrary, the case studies presented in this volume show that the role of the state can be crucial in mobilizing both the human and capital investment needed to be able to compete in international economy. Alex E.Fernández Jilberto’s career has taken him from his native Chile to the Netherlands via Spain, writing extensively on the political economy of Latin American countries. André Mommen has published many articles on the Belgian economy and more recently on developing and ex-socialist economies. ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS 1 Economic Development in the Middle East Rodney Wilson 2 Monetary and Financial Policies in Developing Countries Akhtar Hossain and Anis Chowdhury 3 New Directions in Development Economics (Growth, Environmental Concerns and Government in the 1990s) Edited by Mats Lindahl and Benno J.Ndulu 4 Financial Liberalization and Investment Kanhaya L.Gupta and Robert Lensink 5 Liberalization in the Developing World Institutional and economic changes in Latin America, Africa and Asia Edited by Alex E.Fernández Jilberto and André Mommen LIBERALIZATION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD Institutional and economic changes in Latin America, Africa and Asia Edited by Alex E.Fernández Jilberto and André Mommen London and New York First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. © 1996 Alex E.Fernández Jilberto and André Mommen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-03006-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-21750-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-14053-6 (Print Edition) ISSN 1359-7884 CONTENTS List of figures vii List of tables viii List of contributors ix Preface by Alex E.Fernández Jilberto and André Mommen xi 1 SETTING THE NEOLIBERAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDA: STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND EXPORT-LED INDUSTRIALIZATION Alex E.Fernández Jilberto and André Mommen 1 2 THE ASIAN MIRACLE: A CRITICAL REASSESSMENT André Mommen 28 3 ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND LIBERALIZATION IN INDONESIA Batara Simatupang 51 4 VIETNAM’S GRADUALIST ECONOMIC REFORMS David H.D.Truong and Carolyn L.Gates 72 5 NEOLIBERALISM AND ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY IN BRAZIL Ana Maria Fernandes 96 6 CONTROLLING HYPERINFLATION AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN NICARAGUA Oscar Catalán Aravena 122 7 MEXICO’S INTEGRATION IN NAFTA: NEOLIBERAL RESTRUCTURING AND CHANGING POLITICAL ALLIANCES Alex E.Fernández Jilberto and Barbara Hogenboom 138 8 BOLIVIA: CRISIS, STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND DEMOCRACY Carlos F.Toranzo Roca 161 v CONTENTS 9 NEOLIBERALISM AND THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEASANTRY Kees Blokland 178 10 STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENTS, DEMOCRACY AND THE STATE IN ARGENTINA Miguel Teubal 201 11 THE SEARCH FOR LEGITIMATION AND LIBERALIZATION IN ALGERIA Michiel Beker 220 12 THE POST-COLONIAL STATE AND ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REFORMS IN CAMEROON Piet Konings 244 13 POWER STRUGGLE AND ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION IN GHANA Kwame Nimako 266 14 ZAÏRE’S ECONOMIC DECLINE AND ILL-FATED LIBERALIZATION POLICIES André Mommen 285 Index 307 vi FIGURES 5.1 Brazil: annual change in GDP per capita 100 5.2 Brazil: net remittances (US$ billion) 103 5.3 Brazilian external debt by creditor (1991 US$124 billion) 105 5.4 Brazil: annual percentage variation in prices 106 5.5 Brazil: exports and imports (US$ billion) 108 5.6 Brazil: capital flows (US$ billion) 109 5.7 Brazil: real domestic interest rates accumulated in the year (over) 110 5.8 Brazil: minimum wage (1991 US$) 114 5.9 Brazil: socio-economic indicators by region, 1988 116 5.10Brazil: infant mortality per 1,000 population 117 vii TABLES 1.1 Agricultural characteristics (1978–80) 9 1.2 Annual average growth rates 10 1.3 Trade push for ten South American countries, plus Mexico (but minus Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana) 21 1.4 Basic indicators of the world economy 21 2.1 GNP level of some Asian economies (1992) 45 3.1 Indonesia: savings, investment rates and GDP growth (1960–92) 53 3.2 Indonesia: aggregate efficiency indicators (1973–88) 53 3.3 Structural change in Indonesia, 1965–90 55 4.1 Typical ‘big bang’ sequencing of reforms of European economies in transition to market systems 74 4.2 Vietnam’s gradualist sequencing of reforms 74 5.1 Net assets of foreign companies included in the 500 largest enterprises in Brazil 111 6.1 Nicaragua: main economic indicators (1988–93) 128 6.2 Nicaragua: fiscal indicators (1990–3) 131 6.3 Nicaragua: monetary indicators (1990–3) 131 14.1 Zaïre: GECAMINES’ total output (in metric tonnes) 295 14.2 Zaïre: government revenues over the period 1980–93 (in US$ million) 295 14.3 Zaïre: government expenditures and deficits over 1989–92 (in US$ million) 297 14.4 Composition of Zaïre’s GDP (added value in million zaïres in constant prices of 1970) 299 viii CONTRIBUTORS Michiel Beker is affiliated to the Midele East Research Associates (MERA) in Amsterdam and specialized in North African politics. He is preparing a PhD on recent Algerian political history. Kees Blokland is working for the Paulo Freire Foundation in the Netherlands and is an expert in agrarian development policies and economics in Latin America. Oscar Catalán Aravena is a Lecturer in International Economic Relations at the University of Amsterdam and a specialist in economic policies in Central American countries. Ana Maria Fernandes lectures in Sociology at the University of Brasilia and obtained a PhD at the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College in 1987. Alex E.Fernández Jilberto is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam. His publications deal with the politics of Chile and Central America. Carolyn L.Gates is Senior Economist of the Foundation for Indo-China Studies (University of Amsterdam) and Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Studies (Singapore). She is currently researching on firm behaviour and institutional change in Vietnam. Barbara Hogenboom is a Research Assistant at the Department of Political Science of the University of Amsterdam and a specialist in Mexican politics and regional integration. Piet Konings is a Senior Researcher at the African Studies Centre, University of Leiden (the Netherlands) and is working on labour and class formation in Ghana and Cameroon. André Mommen is working at the Department of Political Studies of the University of Amsterdam. He has published many books and articles on Belgian political and economic history. He is currently studing neoliberal policies in Eastern Europe, Africa and East Asia. ix CONTRIBUTORS Kwame Nimako was previously at the Department of International Studies of the Jan Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. He specialized in economic and political history of Ghana and now lectures on African politics and economic problems at the University of Amsterdam. Batara Simatupang works at the Department of Economics at the University of Amsterdam and is a specialist in communist economic systems, especially in Poland. Nowadays he lectures on structural transformations in the Southeast Asian area. Miguel Teubal is Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Buenos Aires and researcher at the Centre de Estudios Avanzados of the same university. He has published numerous books on agriculture and poverty in Latin America. Carlos F.Toranzo Roca is working at the Institute Latinamericano de Investigaciones Sociales, Fundación Friedrich Ebert, in La Paz (Bolivia). He is a specialist in Latin American economic and political studies. David H.D.Truong is a visiting Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and Director of the Foundation for Indo-China Studies in Amsterdam. He is a specialist on Indo-China affairs and transitional economics, a consultant to international institutions and corporations, and a frequent adviser to Vietnamese entrepreneurs and business. x PREFACE They believed their words. Everybody shows a respectful deference to certain sounds that he and his fellows can make. But about feelings people really know nothing. We talk with indignation or enthusiasm; we talk about oppression, cruelty, crime, devotion, self-sacrifice, virtue, and we know nothing real beyond the words. Nobody knows what suffering or sacrifice mean—except, perhaps, the victims of the mysterious purpose of these illusions.