Beyond the IFIs, beyond USAID in Chavista Venezuela

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-436
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Gill
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
The U.S

Many scholars assert that the U.S. state promotes free market economic policies abroad through the leverage it wields within international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Other scholars have focused on U.S. bilateral aid programs, such as those implemented by USAID, and their emphasis on free market economic policies. In many middle-income countries, though, IFIs and U.S. development agencies do not maintain economic development programs. If the U.S. state cannot promote free market policies through IFIs and its bilateral development agencies, how does it promote them at all in middle-income countries? In this paper, I provide a case study of U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela, a middle-income country, under the government of President Hugo Chávez (1999–2013). I draw on interviews with U.S. state elites, including several former ambassadors and State Department employees, and U.S. state documents to show how the U.S. encourages free market economic reforms through its support for civil society organizations that embrace these reforms. In particular, I focus on the work of the Center for International Private Enterprise, which has explicitly linked political freedom with economic freedom. Through this organization, the U.S. works with free market think tanks and promotes free market initiatives, all in the form of political rather than economic assistance.

The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The South ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Strategic Issues ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Depth Analysis

While South Africa shares some characteristics with other middle-income countries, it has a unique economic history with distinctive characteristics. South Africa is an economic powerhouse with a significant role not only at the southern African regional and continental levels, but also as a member of BRICS. However, the country faces profound developmental challenges, including the ‘triple challenges’ of poverty, inequality and unemployment. There has been a lack of structural transformation and weak economic growth. Ongoing debates around economic policies to address these challenges need to be based on rigorous and robust empirical evidence and in-depth analysis of South African economic issues. This necessitates wide-ranging research, such as that brought together in this handbook. This volume intends to provide original, comprehensive, detailed, state-of-the-art analytical perspectives, that contribute to knowledge while also contributing to well-informed and productive discourse on the South African economy. While concentrating on the more recent economic challenges facing the country, the handbook also provides historical and political context, an in-depth examination of strategic issues in the various critical economic sectors, and assembles diverse analytical perspectives and arguments that have implications for policymaking.

scholarly journals Friedrich A. von Hayek e il problema della solidarietà

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-118
Author(s):  
Dario Antiseri
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Trojan Horse ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Great Society ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
The Social

In the development of science and of a democracy, competition represents the highest form of collaboration. The same applies in the free market economic system that supports political freedom and corresponds to the most secure source of extended welfare. However, Hayek warns that The «Great Society» is seriously threatened by the comeback of the social-ism’s «tribal ethic»: «the concept of ‘social justice’ has been the Trojan horse for the entrance of the totalitarism». By saying this, he does not deny the value of solidarity. The Great Society can allow itself to help those in need, and actually it must do it. Resumen. La competizione nello sviluppo della scienza e nella vita di una democrazia costituisce la piü alta forma di collaborazione, cosí come lo é nell’economia di mercato - sistema económico che sta a base delle liberta politiche e che é la fonte maggiormente sicura del piü esteso benessere. La Grande Societá, tuttavia, é seriamente minacciata - ammonisce Hayek - dalla riaffermazione dell»’etica tribale» del socialismo: «il concertó di ‘giustizia sociale’ é stato il cavallo di Troia tramite il quale ha fatto il suo ingresso il totalitarismo». Con ció Hayek non nega affatto il valore della solidarietá, in quanto la Grande Societá puó permettersi di aiutare i piü deboli e deve farlo.

State Developmentalism Without a Developmental State: The Public Foundations of the “Free Market Miracle” in Chile

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Marcus Kurtz
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Free Market ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Insurance Markets ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Public Intervention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
International Comparative

AbstractIf export orientation is a goal in a sustainable development strategy, this study argues that public interventions at the sectoral level in a variety of markets can produce economic reorientation that pursues international comparative advantage faster and at lower cost than free market forces can. Pervasive failures in information, credit, input, distribution, and insurance markets can render strictly market-based adjustment both slow and costly. Although Chile's export boom and high growth rates have been associated with its free market economic policies, this article, based on a comparison of the fruit, fish, and forestry sectors, contends that new forms of public intervention were crucial catalysts in shaping a sustained export response.

scholarly journals Effects of Menu Labeling Policies on Transnational Restaurant Chains to Promote a Healthy Diet: A Scoping Review to Inform Policy and Research

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1544
Author(s):  
Sofía Rincón-Gallardo Patiño ◽  
Mi Zhou ◽  
Fabio Da Silva Gomes ◽  
Robin Lemaire ◽  
Valisa Hedrick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Menu Labeling ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Global Databases ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Modest Effect

There is insufficient evidence that restaurant menu labeling policies are cost-effective strategies to reduce obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Evidence suggests that menu labeling has a modest effect on calories purchased and consumed. No review has been published on the effect of menu labeling policies on transnational restaurant chains globally. This study conducted a two-step scoping review to map and describe the effect of restaurant menu labeling policies on menu reformulation. First, we identified national, state, and municipal menu labeling policies in countries from global databases. Second, we searched four databases (i.e., PubMed, CINHAL/EBSCO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) for peer-reviewed studies and gray-literature sources in English and Spanish (2000–2020). Step 1 identified three voluntary and eight mandatory menu labeling policies primarily for energy disclosures for 11 upper-middle and high-income countries, but none for low- or middle-income countries. Step 2 identified 15 of 577 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The analysis showed reductions in energy for newly introduced menu items only in the United States. We suggest actions for governments, civil society organizations, and the restaurant businesses to develop, implement, and evaluate comprehensive menu labeling policies to determine whether these may reduce obesity and NCD risks worldwide.

Good-Bye to the Washington Consensus?

2003 ◽  
Vol 102 (661) ◽  
pp. 58-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Mahon
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Washington Consensus ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Economic Openness ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Social Disintegration ◽  
Market Economic

Latin Americans might have expected, after following the free-market economic policies of the ‘Washington consensus’ for a dozen years, that the region would have begun to savor the fruits of openness. But with some exceptions—notably Chile, Costa Rica, and much of Mexico—the fruit has turned out to be bitter, as economic openness appears to have accelerated social disintegration.

Changes in Latin America: Consequences for Human Development

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Weisbrot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Growth Failure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Alternative Sources ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Control

This article looks at Latin America's political shift over the last several years. The author argues that these changes have largely been misunderstood and underestimated in the United States for a number of reasons. First, Latin America's unprecedented growth failure over the past 25 years is a major cause of these political changes and has not been well-understood. Second, the collapse of the International Monetary Fund's influence in Latin America, and in middle-income countries, is an epoch-making change. Third, the availability of alternative sources of finance, especially from the reserves of the Venezuelan government, has become very important. Finally, the increasing assertion of national control over natural resources is an important part of the new relationship between Latin America and the United States. For these and other reasons, the relationship between Latin America and the United States has undergone a fundamental and possibly irreversible change, and one that opens the way to new and mostly more successful economic policies.

RACING TOWARD THE 21ST CENTURY: SOME CHALLENGES FOR MANAGERS IN CHINA

1995 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 121-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
DOUGLAS ALLEN ◽  
SOMNATH BASU ◽  
CHIU-HUNG TSAI ◽  
MURRAY YOUNG
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Models ◽  
China Today

The transformation taking place in China's economy is simultaneously characterized by rapid growth (estimated at 13% in 1992 and 1993), movement toward a free market economic model, and the "opening" of China to active participation in and by the outside world. As these changes take place, managers in China are challenged to adopt new management practices. This paper briefly discusses three major challenges facing managers in China today: 1) enhancing customer orientation; 2) increasing effective utilization of human resources; and 3) development of financial information systems. The paper warns against the temptation to "clone" free market economic systems and management practices. Instead, Chinese managers and policy makers can selectively adopt "best practices" from around the world even as they retain selected Chinese management practices and economic policies which remain effective models from which the rest of the world may learn.

A World of Despair

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greta de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
Government Interference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Efficient Mechanisms

This chapter describes the impact of free market economic policies on rural development in the 1980s and 1990s. Seeking to end excessive government interference in the economy, President Ronald Reagan cut taxes, weakened civil rights enforcement, and reduced funding for social programs that served low-income Americans. Reagan believed that private enterprise and market forces were the most efficient mechanisms for creating wealth and distributing resources. Such policies failed to address the problems facing unemployed and poor people in the rural South. At the turn of the twentieth century, the region was still plagued by unemployment, poverty, inadequate health care, substandard housing, and out-migration.

Freedom as Collective Self-Determination

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-72
Author(s):  
James Muldoon
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Bureaucratic State

This chapter proposes that Anton Pannekoek espoused a particular conception of freedom that is distinct from both the dominant liberal and republican views of liberty. Pannekoek understood political freedom as a political community’s ongoing struggle against forces of domination and the experimentation with new practices and structures of governance. I call this view of liberty ‘freedom as collective self-determination’. Pannekoek shared the concerns of republican political theorists for combatting structures of domination and the influence of foreign powers. Yet in contrast to most neo-Roman republicans, he identified the bureaucratic state and free market economic relations as two of the principal sources of domination in modern society. He also believed that democratic participation was essential rather than auxiliary to a proper understanding of freedom. To be free, for Pannekoek, meant to actively participate in a political community, to play some direct role in shaping its laws and character; and to influence the direction of its ongoing transformation. This was a conception in which freedom must be exercised rather than enjoyed as a state or condition. This view of freedom contributes an important perspective to our understanding of freedom understood as a practice and constant struggle, which is obscured by purely negative accounts.

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