Latin American neostructuralism : the evolution of a paradigmatic synthesis

Abstract

A new paradigm for economic development as emerged in Latin America that promises to combine reactivated economic growth with social equity and political democracy. Latin American neostructuralism constitutes a pragmatic paradigm for development that overcomes the revolutionary and fundamentalist idealism that had earlier characterized development approaches in the region. The evolution of the neostructuralist synthesis is traced through the development crisis of the 1980s and into the restructuring of the 1990s. The integrated policy framework is then deconstructed to show how neostructuralism justifies its policy recommendations, revealing its core assumptions and contradictions. The limit of the neostructuralist synthesis is found to be its tendency to reduce the complexity of development issues to mechanical problems, curable by simply implementing enlightened economic policies.