‘I was not born as a feminist economist, but I became one through time’

Part 1 Themes and issues: from economic liberalization to international integration - the role of the state the origins of liberal institutioons in the ancient Middle East the links between economic and political liberalization international and domestic factors in the economic liberalization process in Arab countries austerity protests in response to economic liberalization in the Middle East the practical record and prospects of privatization programmes in the Arab world foreign investment and economic liberalization in the Middle East. Part 2 Case studies: Egypt Tunisia Syria economic liberalization and the suq in Syria Iran Israel Oman and Yemen.

: Foreign economic development and prosperity support the national security of the United States by contributing to domestic prosperity, increasing foreign social stability, and reducing the likelihood of armed conflict. While the value of economic and political liberalization may be universally accepted, problems in developing, implementing, and sustaining a consistent development policy to achieve these goals have made that policy elusive. This paper examines the tension between political and economic liberalization, introduces the continuum of legitimate paths toward economic liberalization, and demonstrates the practical use of this continuum as an analytic tool in the case of Slovenia. Finally, it concludes with some general policy recommendations for the United States.

Part 1 Balance of payments liberalization in Latin America - effects on growth, distribution and poverty, Lance Taylor and Rob Vos: assessing the impact of the policy reforms cross-country comparisons summary of country experiences results from model simulations conclusions. Part 2 Labour market adjustment, poverty and inequality during liberalization, Enrique Ganuza et al: the microstimulations methodology effects of labour market adjustment on inequality and poverty conclusions. Part 3 Argentina - macroeconomic behaviour, employment and income distribution in the 1990s, Roberto Frenkel and Martin Gonzalez Rozada: stylized features of macroeconomics dynamics urban employment trends an aggregate model of the labour market anatomy of the decline in employment employment, productivity and opening of manufacturing industry income distribution effects of changes in the employment and remuneration structure. Part 4 Brazil - economic opening and income distribution, Ricardo Paes de Barros and Carlos Henrique Corseuil: economic opening and macroeconomic and labour market trends modelling the impact of balance-of-payments liberalization simulation results conclusions. Part 5 Chile - trade liberalization, employment and inequality, Jose de Gregorio et al: economic reforms and trade liberalization trade opening and macroeconomic effects trade opening and microeconomic effects conclusions. Part 6 Colombia - structural change, labour market adjustment and income distribution in the 1990s, Jose Antonio Ocampo et al: the reforms macroeconomic trends the labour market effects of the labour market in income distribution conclusions. Part 7 Ecuador - economic liberalization, adjustment and poverty, 1988-99, Rob Vos: the stop-go process of stabilization and opening of the economy economic performance -liberalization with little structural adjustment? wages, distribution and poverty simulating the effects of macro-adjustment and trade liberalization on poverty and inequality concluding remarks. Part 8 El Salvador - balance-of-payments liberalization, remittances, employment and poverty, Alexander Segovia and Jeanette Larde: the macroeconomic functioning of Salvadorian economy economic opening, massive inflow of foreign resources and balance-of-payments adjustment inequality, poverty and labour market adjustment in the 1990s effects of liberalization on inequality and poverty conclusions. Part 9 Mexico - trade liberalization, growth, inequality and poverty, Jaime Ros and Cesar Bouillon: liberalization of the balance of payments macroeconomic performance during the boom and collapse of capital flows trade liberalization, labour market and wage inequality labour market, inequality and poverty conclusions. Part 10 Peru - stabilization, liberalization and inequality, Juan Jopse Diaz et al: structural reforms and macroeconomic conditions changes in aggregate demand and in the production structure evolution of the labour market before

This contribution analyses the change in the conception of taxation which occurred in Italy during the aftermath of World War II. From being a neutral mechanism to collect state revenue, in this period taxation became seen as a powerful political tool to redistribute income and wealth. The article primarily relies on material collected by the Economic Commission of the Ministry for the Constituent Assembly set up in 1945, a unique source which offers a comprehensive overview of the different conceptions of taxation at the time. Drawing upon their different economic and political ideologies, liberal economists and entrepreneurs, Christian Democrats, and Communists formulated alternative tax programmes. While liberal economists and entrepreneurs advocated the maintenance of the existing tax system on technical grounds, the Christian Democrats imposed a new conception of taxation as a means for income redistribution. Progressive and redistributive taxation was also present in the Communist programme, but their ambiguous tax views suffered from the lack of administrative and economic experience which liberal and Catholic economists had instead gathered before and partially even during the Fascist regime. The debate ended abruptly in 1947 with the exclusion of the left from government and the success of liberal conceptions. Nonetheless, during the 1960s, the Catholic emphasis on progressive and redistributive taxation incorporated the new Keynesian ideas on public finance and achieved a hegemonic position in the public debate, thus overcoming the traditional liberal view.

Economic and political liberalizations

Economic and Political Liberalizations

Even amid the apparent post–Cold War consensus, the benefits and drawbacks of economic and political liberalization remain controversial. At the same time, explanations for the recent surge in these processes, and for the forms they have taken, remain fragmentary. Likewise, the linkages between the two remain under-researched—despite many sweeping assertions of a positive relationship. Nonneman investigates these issues, providing a framework for the remainder of the book, in which diverse country studies are used to advance our understanding of the dynamics and complexities of both political and economic liberalization.

1. Setting the neoliberal development agenda: Structural adjustment and export-led industrialization Alex E. Fernandez Jilberto and Andre Mommen 2. The Asian Miracle: A critical reassessment Andre Mommen 3. Economic transformation and liberalization in Indonesia Batara Simatupang 4. Vietnam's Gradualist Economic Reforms David H.D. Truong and Carolyn L. Gates 5. Neoliberalism and economic uncertainty in Brazil Ana Maria Fernandez 6. Controlling hyperinflation and structural adjustment in Nicaragua Oscar Catalan Aravena 7. Mexico's Integration in NAFTA: Neoliberal restructuring and changing political alliances Alex E. Fernandez Jilberto and Barbara Hogenboom 8. Bolivia: Crisis, structural adjustment and democracy Carlos F. Toranza Roca 9. Neoliberalism and the Central American peasantry Kees Blokland 10. Structural adjustment, democracy and the state in Argentina Miguel Teubal 11. The search for legitimation and liberalization in Algeria Michiel Beker 12. The post-colonial state and economic and political reforms in Cameroon Piet Konings 13. Power struggle and economic liberalization in Ghana Kwame Nimako 14. Zaire's economic decline and ill-fated liberalization policies Andre Mommen

This article explores different arguments regarding economic liberalism developed by the Socialist and Radical parties in Argentina from 1930 to 1943. The analysis of primary and secondary sources shows that both parties voiced strong discourses rooted in economic liberalism as part of their political and ideological attacks against the conservative national administrations of the Concordancia, which were expanding the process of state economic intervention facing the local impact of the Great Depression and World War II. On the other hand, those official discourses masked other positions that were gaining space within both parties, which reconciled state economic intervention and political liberalism—and in some cases, anti-liberalism. Some of these arguments were echoed within the Concordancia and reveal coincidences across party lines. This growing consensus about state economic intervention eventually found expression in anti-Fascist publications and institutions where conservatives, Socialists, and Radicals gathered by the late 1930s and early 1940s.

This paper studies empirically the effects of and the interactions amongst economic and political liberalizations. Economic liberalizations are measured by a widely used indicator that captures the scope of the market in the economy, and in particular of policies towards freer international trade (cf. Political liberalizations correspond to the event of becoming a democracy. Using a difference-in-difference estimation, we ask what are the effects of liberalizations on economic performance, on macroeconomic policy and on structural policies. The main results concern the quantitative relevance of the feedback and interaction effects between the two kinds of reforms. First, we find positive feedback effects between economic and political reforms. The timing of events indicates that causality is more likely to run from political to economic liberalizations, rather than viceversa, but we cannot rule out feedback effects in both directions. Second, the sequence of reforms matters. Countries that first liberalize and then become democracies do much better than countries that pursue the opposite sequence, in almost all dimensions.

Civil society has emerged as a contested concept in development. Some observers claim that economic restructuring has eroded the political hegemony of authoritarian regimes and created a new space for autonomous associations. In Mexico, chronic economic crisis and economic adjustment policies generated widespread popular discontent in the 1980s. The authoritarian regime tried to channel popular dissatisfaction into the institutionalized political arena through a series of electoral reforms. Thus, economic liberalization in Mexico was paralleled by a slow and gradual process of liberalization of the Mexican political system. In the context of these economic and political changes, scholars have observed an awakened civil society in Mexico. They have chronicled the emergence of independent organizations of workers, peasants, and the urban poor. They have also documented new types of civic associations such as environmental groups, election‐watch groups, human rights organizations, debtors’ groups, and women’s movements. Numerous studies of social movements beginning in the 1980s appear to suggest the rise of civil society in the era of economic and political liberalization.

Are economic and political liberalism compatible? Most dictatorships today have embraced the free market. They have relinquished their control over the economy in favor of private competition. Democratic observers celebrated these changes; they hoped the new economic freedoms would help autocracies transition into more open political regimes. But they have not. Instead, many of these free-market dictatorships have become more repressive than before. This book shows that economic liberalization is a double-edged sword. It can empower regime outsiders to demand political inclusion, but in doing so, it makes the ruling political class uneasy. They fear economic reform will bring down the system that keeps them in power. To combat this threat, they mobilize the state against the opposition. The result is a less tolerant regime that quickly represses the opposition it would have otherwise tolerated. Economic freedom has expanded, but it has come at the cost of more abusive regimes. Economic liberalism not only often fails to bring about political change, but it can also actively undermine it.

Even amid the apparent post–Cold War consensus, the benefits and drawbacks of economic and political liberalization remain controversial. At the same time, explanations for the recent surge in these processes, and for the forms they have taken, remain fragmentary. Likewise, the linkages between the two remain under-researched—despite many sweeping assertions of a positive relationship. Nonneman investigates these issues, providing a framework for the remainder of the book, in which diverse country studies are used to advance our understanding of the dynamics and complexities of both political and economic liberalization.

Synopsis: Thus far we have exposed the two sides of the betrayal of liberal economics. On the one hand (the first four chapters), we discussed the betrayal in the sense of the false promise generated by the pretence of a universal and ethically neutral system of competitive decentralised decision-making. On the other hand (Chaps. 5 , 6 and 7 ), we explored the betrayal in the sense of the misconception of the idea of liberal economics given the inability of economics to capture the sociality which is embedded in human nature. In this chapter, we ask what could be the possible meaning of liberal economics had we integrated human sociality into the foundation of our economic analysis. In so doing, we explore a third aspect of the betrayal: the misinterpretation of liberal classical economics. We argue that what is known as liberal classical economics is indeed a form of liberal economics where the sociality of agents plays a significant role. Therefore, while the modern belief that classical economics is merely a primitive form of modern economics suggests an intellectual betrayal, it also offers an opportunity to examine what liberal economics could look like. By examining some aspects of classical economics, we uncover the difference between a conceptual framework of liberal economics which is organically social and the one which is entirely functional. In the former framework, economic analysis is a consequence of social interaction, while in the latter society is the consequence of economic interactions. At the same time, the analysis of natural liberty—the system of competitive decentralised decision-making—is, in the one case, measured against its purely economic success in producing plenty, while in the other case it will be measured against the ability of the system to service the social drive behind it.

How does economic liberalization affect political regime? Economic liberalization is widely regarded as inimical to democratization. The “Washington Consensus,” which generally endorses “shock therapy” and envisions a basic compatibility between economic liberalization and democratization, is widely disdained in social science. Many scholars hold that neoliberal economics depresses popular living standards and exacerbates socioeconomic inequalities, thereby compromising democratization. Focusing on the postcommunist region, this article tests this hypothesis. It examines the data that have been used to assess the relationship between economic liberalization and political democratization and presents analyses using more appropriate and differentiated techniques. The authors find that economic liberalization advances rather than undermines democratization. Using Engle-Granger analysis, they find that although economic liberalization has no discernible impact on democratization in the short term, democratization adjusts in the direction of a long-term equilibrium to which economic liberalization contributes substantially.