The state in Latin America from the 1930s until today: crisis, reforms, resurrection?

Abstract

This paper is a study of the Latin American State from the 1930s until today. The first part is an analysis of the fundamental pillars of the stage known as inward-oriented development: industrialization as a substitution of imports, the interventionist State and populism. The characteristics of the Latin American crisis of the developmental state of the fifties and seventies are also presented, as well as the different solutions tested to address it during these decades and the following one. The second part is a tour of the so- called first and second generation structural reforms promoted by neoliberalism during the eighties and nineties, underlining their political and social consequences for the region. Finally, it describes the challenges in terms of public policy faced by the Latin American State at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st Century as the result of this more than half a century long history.