Lasting neoliberalism: The Washington Consensus in the Latin American pink tide

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the continuity of neoliberalism in the Latin America electoral politics during the Pink Tide, showing its presence in the presidential platforms launched from 1999 to 2015. A content analysis, based on the Washington Consensus, which is a kind of neoliberal manifesto, is used as an approach in this research. The analysis used 94 platforms from 47 presidential elections that took place in 13 Latin American countries. The research reveals that neoliberalism in fact has lost ground and the Washington Consensus rules, such as privatization and reduction in public spending, have been emphatically rejected. Meanwhile the ground established by rules such as inflation control and public deficit reduction presents the neoliberal resilience during the Pink Tide, even in non-neoliberal presidential platforms. As far as it measures the presence of the Washington Consensus in Latin America political scene after 2000, this study helps to ponder on the anti-neoliberal agenda limits and the basis of the resumption of the ideology in the subcontinent.