Argentina: A successfull case of post-neoliberalism?

There have been debates about the end of neoliberalism and the beginning of a neo-developmentalist stage in Latin America, portrayed as a successful alternative to the current picture of crisis and stagnation in core countries.  These debates have mostly revolved around the progressive Latin American governments emerged after the crisis of neoliberalism in the region, their links to social movements and the scope and limitations of the processes of transformation led by these governments. But the attention given to governments, social movements and progressive political projects  has tended to leave aside the study of the current patterns of capitalist accumulation in the region and the role of Latin American states against the backdrop of the global crisis of neoliberalism. 

Taking this lack of attention into account, we will review the transformations occurred in Argentina after the economic, political and social crisis of 2001 to reflect about the scope, limitations and contradictions of the ‘neo-developmentalist’ or ‘post-neoliberal’ path of recovery initiated in 2003 and to the role of the state in it. We will raise questions about the similarities and differences between the post-war ISI and the current development strategy of growth in an economy that has largely remained open and integrated within neoliberal globalization.

Our analysis would be based on the assumption that development—and the role of the state in it—is not a mere technical issue and cannot be reduced to economic theories, institutional practices and/or personal links between state officials and economic elites. Rather, development involves conflictive processes of capitalist reproduction and crisis, of changing relations between capital and labour whose specific features are shaped by the peripheral location of the country, and by the balances of forces underlying a particular development strategy.