Competing Perspectives on Economic Policy Change, Article Review Example

The post-war Latin American economy was more dependent on East Asia during post-war era that it is often supposed. This is according to Mahon (1996), in an article he wrote in the Journal of Development Studies. According to Mahon, Latin American had to depend on, rather than compete, with East Asia for fear of suffering massive currency devaluations. This is because industrialization efforts were solely dependent on exports in a region that was heavily in debt. Evidence on simple manufactured goods traded by the region with the rest of the world in the 1960s is presented.

Latin America’s legacy of economic reforms is also highlighted through discourse on relationships between economic change and political transition. For instance, Stallings (1992) takes theoretical and comparative perspectives in order to explore the elusive nature of comparative political economy issues in Latin America.

Robinson (2004) has discussed the 21st century Latin American economic experiences in detail. His article explores the ways in which Latin America has restructured world capitalism, especially since the 1970’s, when many institutional problems and social conflicts engulfed the entire region.

A neo-liberal model has been used to explain global trade specialization trends. This analytical discourse is subdivided into different sections. The sections handle issues such as Latin America’s economic profile on the international scene, the dominating effects of speculative capital, chronic debt crisis, social problems and their economic underpinnings, new inequality trends, capital-labor interactions, institutional crises, populist electoral processes and the fragile nature of neo-liberal states. In contrast to other essays highlighted here, this one sums up the discussion by assessing the problems of legitimacy and over-accumulation as they relate to global capitalistic forces. In the light of this, future prospects for Latin America are highlighted.