Economic Development under Democratic Regimes

How and why democratic governments in Latin America have implemented neoliberal developmental policies such as freeing exchange rates, privatizing state-owned companies, reducing governmental budget deficits through reduction in size of the government, reducing tariffs, and encouraging foreign private investments is discussed in this work. This study follows the ideological progress of some of the populist leaders and parties towards democratic neoliberalism. The work examines the topic on three levels: the national level represented by Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina; the subregional level represented by Mexico and the North American free trade agreements, the Commercial Union of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay; and the hemispheric level represented by Latin America, the United States, and the IMF.