Political Economy of the Second Generation Policy Reform in Latin America

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Latin American countries have embarked on dramatic policy reforms in the 1990s that pursue market mechanism. However the consequences of the policy reforms do not necessarily mean a resurgence of sustained growth and improvement of social equity in most of the Latin American countries. In this sense, it is very essential for Latin America to conduct so-called "Second Generation Policy Reforms" that improve state and institutional roles.The main objective of this project is to investigate the following questions from an interdisciplinary approach that combines economics, international relations, and political science.(1) What are the basic challenges for the second generation reform in Latin America?(2) How and why governments can have incentives for states and institutional reform?(3) How the developments of democracy can contribute to the second generation reform?In the first two years of the project, each investigators conducted researches with respects to the assigned countries : Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. The research results were published in the volume, Policy Reforms in Latin America, RIBE, Kobe University, 2003. In the final year of the project, since one of the investigators, Professor Hosono declined from the team because of the appointment to the Ambassador in Ecuador, we focused on the theme regarding currency crisis and labor movement in Argentina.As interim conclusions we can stress a couple of important points :(1) In order to progress the second generation reform in Latin America, the most essential factor lies in the incentives of the governments themselves. What have influenced the incentive structure of the governments?(2) We understand that increasing linkages to the world economy by globalization and deepening of the democratic political system have contributed to the improvements of the incentive structures of the governments.