Forward or Backward? Re-evaluating the State’s role after the “Washington Consensus”

Abstract

In a number of Latin American countries a re-evaluation of State intervention in economic and social relations is taking place in current years, as a reaction to the outcomes delivered by the implementation of the so-called “Washington Consensus” – an implementation that, in some of these countries, triggered massive protests which in turn fostered far-reaching political shifts. In sharp contrast to the overwhelming institutional landscape of past decades, the State is now re-approached as a policy-tool for development and social welfare, which comprises fostering alternative processes for regional integration and public policies coordination. The article also focuses on the historically variable relations between State and the economy, on the main factors which contributed to the implementation of the “Washington Consensus” as well to its recent rejection or reformulation; it also discusses whether the current re-evaluation should be understood either as a progressive innovation, as a retreat to past “populists” or “developmentalist” experiments, or just another cyclical turn between “State-centered” and “market-centered” approaches.