Neoliberal Modernity Crisis in Latin America at the Twenty-First Century: Social Cleavages, National Challenges and Hemispheric Revisionism
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Neoliberal Modernity Crisis in Latin America at the Twenty-First Century: Social Cleavages, National Challenges and Hemispheric Revisionism by Gustavo Adolfo Morales Vega A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015 Gustavo Adolfo Morales Vega To my wife Catalina and our son Gabriel who often remind me that our representations of the world are also tied to deep feelings and emotions. ii Abstract This dissertation is concerned with the way the crisis of the neoliberal modernity project applied in Latin America during the 80s and 90s affected the political order of the hemisphere at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This work’s main argument is that the responses to the social cleavages produced by the global hegemonic pretension of neoliberalism have, on one hand, produced governments in the region driven internally by different and opposed places of enunciation, practices, ideas, and rationalities. On the other hand, these responses have generated locked international communities in the continent between “blocs” moved by different collective meanings. What Latin America is currently living through is not a process of transition resulting from the accomplishment of a new hemispheric consensus but a moment of uncertainty, a consequence of the profound crisis of legitimacy left by the increased weakness of neoliberal collective meanings. It is precisely the dispute about the “correct” collective judgement to organize the American space that moves the international stage in an apparently contradictory dynamic of regional integration and confrontation. In general terms, it is a wide-ranging dispute, not limited exclusively to the political, economic or social sphere. It is an all-encompassing one embedded in the problem of modernity, and as such, related with conflicting worldviews. The first chapter explores the course that the neoliberal project took in the region; its origins, development and crisis. The second chapter is a cross-national analysis of the iii emerging projects in Latin America. The purpose is to determine the collective meanings behind new national projects such as postcolonial indigeneity, confrontational populism, defective neoliberalism and social liberalism. The next chapter is a genealogy that introduces the changes that the new practices and agents emerging in the continent are producing on the international stage. The aim is to grasp the singularity of the contemporary juncture in the light of its continuities and ruptures with the past. The final chapter is a cross-international analysis that holds that with the crisis of neoliberalism, the Americas seem to be fragmented in different rival projects competing between each other. iv Acknowledgements After these five years of research there are so many people that I want to thank. I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my supervisor, doctor Cristina Rojas, and the committee members, doctor Hans-Martin Jaeger, and doctor Gopika Solanki, who decisively contributed to the completion of this doctoral research. Doctor Cristina Rojas has been a tremendous mentor for me in the full meaning of the word. Her teachings, advice and guidance have helped me grow in my academic career. Doctor Rojas’ critical work has fed this research in the best way a mentor can help: not by repeating exclusively her arguments but by using her arguments to develop my own approach to Latin America. I honestly could not have done any of this without her. I would also like to thank doctor Jaeger. His refreshing seminar of Theory and Research in International Politics was not only of the highest level but it also introduced me to new and challenging discussions with direct application to my research. That is why the winter of 2011, despite its heavy snowfalls and its average temperature of -23 ⁰C, will stay in my memory as one of the most active moments of my life. Doctor Jaeger’s impressive erudition and critical skills made me work very hard in each thesis revision in order to bring him decent drafts. I would like to say thanks to doctor Solanki as well. Her keen observations regarding modernities in Latin America helped me redefine my project and finally figure out how to write the third chapter. I really appreciate her willingness and generosity. I want to offer a recognition to the external and internal examiners, doctor Phillip Oxhorn and doctor Daniel McNeil for letting my defense be an enjoyable moment, and for their acute comments and suggestions. v It was really valuable to have some readers that were not part of the review process but rather decided to embark voluntarily in the demanding task of reading some of my chapters. My truthful gratitude to Marcelo Virkel and Martin Obaya who, with their comments, contributed to solving out the puzzle that Argentina and the problem of integration meant in my work. To Patrick Clark who took the time to carefully read my introduction and who offered me his friendship in this country. To Robert Cosgrove and Tatiana Calixto, old friends, who as a proof readers polished this manuscript. I have many people to thank in Colombia as well. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali and its staff, particularly Father Jorge Humberto Peláez S.J and Father Luis Felipe Gómez Restrepo S.J, for believing in my work and supporting me in my studies. My colleagues in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science that have always made me feel welcome: Álvaro Vallejo, Manuel Sevilla, Carlos Ramírez, Nestor Raúl Arturo, Alejandro Sánchez and Alejandro Carvajal, among many others. A special thanks to my mother, Alicia Vega, for all the weekly calls full of affection and understanding that incented me to strive towards my goal. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Catalina for … for everything. For following me to Canada in a travel without guarantees, for patiently reading and correcting my manuscript every week and hearing me talking about the same thing daily, for being that person that I kept in mind throughout the doctoral journey. Her love and unconditional support were definitely the best allies to conclude this research. vi Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... v List of Tables .............................................................................................................. x List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xi List of Appendices ................................................................................................... xiii Introduction: Neoliberal Modernity Crisis in Latin America at the Twenty First Century: Social Cleavages, National Challenges and Hemispheric Revisionism ....... 1 Chapter One: The Course of Neoliberalism in Latin America, 1980–2000: Practices and Rationality of a Modernity Project.................................................................... 23 The Official Version of the Neoliberal Modernity and Its Widely Accepted Practice. An Analysis of the Western Narrative of Neoliberalism in Latin America. ................................... 27 The Neoliberal Economic Modernization, and The Free Economic Competition ................ 32 The Neoliberal Political Modernization and the Free Competition ...................................... 35 The Neoliberal Cultural Modernization and Free Competition ............................................ 38 Disruptive Effects of Free Competition in Latin America .................................................. 41 Neoliberal Modernity “Behind the Scenes”: The Non-Official Version .................................. 49 A Matter of Timing ............................................................................................................. 50 Conditionality as Practice .................................................................................................... 51 Between Free Competition and Conditionality as Practices ................................................ 57 3. Social Cleavages and Political Issues in the New Years of the Twenty-First Century ......... 64 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 69 Chapter Two: Emerging Projects in Latin America in the Early XXI Century: An Interpretative Analysis of Their Variations ............................................................. 71 Critical Review ........................................................................................................................ 78 The Universalizing Approach .............................................................................................. 79 vii Variation Finding Approach ................................................................................................ 83 Project Variations in Current Latin America: Places of Enunciation and Rationalities ............ 86 The Discussions Regarding the Neoliberal Modernity Project ............................................ 87 The Four Different Projects in the Region ........................................................................... 91 Collective Meanings and the Representations of the