Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T11:48:15.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Consensus Found, Consensus Lost: Disjunctures in US Policy Toward Latin America at the Turn of the Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Howard J. Wiarda
Howard J. Wiarda*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington (DC)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

After the great ideological debates of the 1970s and 1980s and the domestic “war” (there is no better term) over Central America policy, a quite remarkable consensus had emerged in the 1990s regarding United States policy in Latin America. The new consensus was surprisingly bipartisan, having been largely continuous from the Bush to the Clinton administrations and actually having its origins in the even earlier Carter and Reagan administrations. For those who remember the rancorous, divisive battles, stretching back over two decades, over such issues as human rights, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, the emergence of a consensus on US foreign policy towards Latin America was nothing short of astounding. There are three basic elements in this new consensus, usually referred to as the "Washington Consensus," all interrelated:

  1. (1) an emphasis on furthering democracy and human rights;

  2. (2) an emphasis on free (or at least “fair”) trade and economic integration; and

  3. (3) an emphasis on open markets, state downsizing, and privatization: i.e., on capitalism or neoliberalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 39 , Issue 1: Special Issue: US-Latin American Relations , Spring 1997 , pp. 13 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baer, M. and Weintraub, S. (eds.) (1994) The NAFTA Debate: Grappling with Unconventional Trade Issues. Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Bustamante, J. (1989) La República Corporativa. Buenos Aires, Argentina : EMECE.Google Scholar
Dealy, G. (1977) The Public Man: An Interpretation of Latin American and Other Catholic Countries. Amherst, MA : University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Duarte, I., Brea, R., Tejada, R., and Báez, C. (1995) Cultura Política y Democracía en la Republica Dominicana. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic : Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra.Google Scholar
Falcoff, M. (1996) Latin American Outlook (February). Washington, DC : American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.Google Scholar
Foreign Broadcast Information Service - Latin America (FBIS-LAT) (1996) “Argentina: Confidence down in Democratic Institutions”, Buenos Aires La Nacion, 13 January; in Fbis-Lat-96–026 (7 February): 31.Google Scholar
Foreign Broadcast Information Service - Latin America (FBIS-LAT) (1995) “Poll: Public Views Democracy, Military Coups”, La Paz Presencia, 5 August; in Fbis-Lat-95–174 (8 September): 54.Google Scholar
Fundación Pensamiento y Acción (Venezuela) (1996) Cultura Democrática en Venezuela. Caracas, Venezuela : Fundación Pensamiento y Acción.Google Scholar
Garten, J. (1995) “After the Mexico Crisis: Challenge and Opportunity in Latin America. Speech given by Undersecretary of Commerce before the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the North-South Center (University of Miami); Crown Plaza Hotel, Miami (Fl); 21 February.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. (1958) Political Change in Latin America. Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Linz, J. (1964) “An Authoritarian Regime: Spain”, pp. 251–83 in Allardt, E. and Littunen, Y. (eds.) Cleavages, Ideologies, and Party Systems. Helsinki, Finland : Westermarck Society.Google Scholar
Loveman, B. (1993) The Constitution of Tyranny: Regimes of Exception in Spanish America. Pittsburgh, PA : University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, G. (1994) “Delegative Democracy. Journal of Democracy 5 (January): 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oropeza, L. (1983) Tutelary Pluralism: A Critical Approach to Venezuelan Democracy. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University, Center for International Affairs.Google Scholar
Rostow, W. (1960) The Stages of Economic Growth. Cambridge, England : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, A. (1995) Comments of Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, which were reported, and quoted extensively, in the Washington Fax Report (3 March), put out by the Council of the Americas.Google Scholar
Wiarda, H. (1997) Corporatism and Comparative Politics: The Other Great “Ism”. New York, NY : M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Wiarda, H. (1996) The 1996 Dominican Republic Elections: Post Election Report (July). Washington, DC : Center for Strategic and International Studies, Americas Program.Google Scholar
Wiarda, H. (1992) Politics and Social Change in Latin America (3rd ed.). Boulder, CO : Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wiarda, H. (1990) The Democratic Revolution in Latin America. New York, NY : Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Wiarda, H. (ed.) (1977) The Continuing Struggle for Democracy in Latin America. Boulder, CO : Westview Press.Google Scholar