Abstract
Thirty years ago, the concept of “economic populism” was an original approach to understand the failed development trajectories of Latin America. At the heart of that research programme was the analytical description of the boom-and-bust cycles and the main elements of the adopted economic policy package that favoured income redistribution along with structural changes in the economy.
Contemporary populism has become a worldwide phenomenon. By now, however, populist policies can hardly be judged as irresponsible; yet, certain distinct characteristics can still be identified. One field where populists have been rather active is developmentalism. Whereas scholarly work has been vigorously studying the demand side of populism, no such determined interest can be experienced with regard to the supply side, i.e., what populists actually do in power. The chapter addresses this challenge by comparing the most recent experiences of populists in power to the original elements of the populist developmental package.
A study prepared in the research project “From developmental states to new protectionism: changing repertoire of state interventions to promote development in an unfolding new world order” (NKFI FK_124573).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The classical era of populism thrived in Latin America between the 1930s and the 1960/1970s, started by Cardenas in Mexico (1934–1940), followed by Vargas (1930–1945) in Brazil and especially Peron in Argentina (1946–1949) and Velasco (1968–1975) in Peru.
- 2.
The literature on dependency was burgeoning that time. Reflecting upon the division of labour between developed and developing countries in the nineteenth century, Bairoch (1998: 11) argued that “the industrialisation of the former led to the de-industrialisation of the latter.” From the 1950s onwards, structuralist explanations for the underdeveloped status of Latin America was at its peak, a typical claim being that “North and South are in a structural relationship one to another; that is that both areas are part of a structure that determines the pattern of relationships that emerges” (Brown, 2001: 197). For the world-systems theorists, capitalism was “a historical social system” Wallerstein (1983: 13). Accordingly, underdevelopment (i.e., a persistent lack of economic growth and development along with impoverishment and even malnutrition) was not the initial stage of a historical and evolutionary uni-linear development process (as predicted by Rostow, 1960), but a consequence of colonialism and imperialism.
- 3.
- 4.
The combination of a fixed exchange rate regime and the massive wage increases triggered substantial appreciation of the real exchange rate both in phases 1 and 2. In turn, export declined and the access to hard currency became problematic too.
- 5.
Drake (1982) warned that such a vision on socialism was the case only in Chile under Allende, where seemingly Keynesian recipes went well beyond the intent of making the capitalist system to function better. Drake emphasises that Allande’s government should not perhaps be labelled as populist as it was rather socialist-communist with a Marxist-Leninist ideology showing no willingness for compromise with the wealthy elite. The latest wave of Latin American populism does show similar tendencies, especially in Venezuela under the late Chavez and Maduro (de la Torre 2017).
- 6.
There are two different forms of personalistic leadership: in case of ideocracy, ideology is a determining factor, whereas in case of populism, personalistic leadership is interpreted flexibly and in an opportunistic way (Weyland, 2001).
- 7.
See also Drake (2012: 71).
- 8.
- 9.
According to Bresser-Pereira (2015), the term “new developmentalism” was his own invention back in 2003. The term was supposed to refer to both a historical-deductive theory and an existing form of capitalism. As a theory, it was deducted from the successful experiences of East Asian economies. As a real-case form of capitalism, it can have different forms, including both authoritarian and democratic versions.
- 10.
Orenstein and Bugaric (2020) underlined that the turn away from the neoliberal agenda implied also a shift in interest towards Eastern authoritarian states with the explicit aim of changeling external sources from these illiberal economies to Hungary and Poland.
References
Acemoglu, A., Egorov, G., & Sonin, K. (2013). A political theory of populism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(2), 771–805.
Algan, Y., Guriev, S., Papaioannou, E. & Passari, E. (2017). The European trust crisis and the rise of populism. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity Brookings Institute.
Amsden, A. H. (1989). Asia’s next Giant—South Korea and late industrialization. Oxford University Press.
Appel, H., & Orenstein, M. A. (2018). From triumph to crisis: Neoliberal economic reform in postcommunist countries. Cambridge University Press.
Autor, D., Dorn, D., Hanson, G. & Majlesi, K. (2017, March 2). A note on the effect of trade exposure on the 2016 presidential elections. https://economics.mit.edu/files/12418
Bairoch, P. (1998). International industrialization levels from 1750–1980. In P. O’Brien (Ed.), Industrialization (pp. 3–35). Routledge.
Ban, C., Scheiring, G., & Vasile, M. (2021). The political economy of national-neoliberalism. European Politics and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2021.1956241
Benczes, I. & Ricz, J. (2020, November 7). Populist rule and developmental statism in Hungary: An uneasy fit. Conference Paper, ASEEES.
Benczes, I. (2022). Taking back control over the economy: From economic populism to the economic consequences of populism European. Policy Analysis, 8(1), 109–123.
Bluhm, K., & Varga, M. (2020). Conservative developmental statism in East central Europe and Russia. New Political Economy, 25(4), 642–659.
Bohle, D. & Greskovits, B. (2012). Capitalist diversity on Europe’s periphery (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press)
Bohle, D., & Regan, A. (2021). The comparative political economy of growth models: Explaining the continuity of FDI-Led growth in Ireland and Hungary. Politics & Society., 49(1), 75–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329220985723
Bohle, D. (2019). Debt, Austerity and the rise of conservative nationalism. https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/45979
Bohle, D., & Greskovits, B. (2019). Politicising embedded neoliberalism: Continuity and change in Hungary’s development model. West European Politics, 42(5), 1069–1093.
Bremmer, I. (2009). State capitalism comes of age: The end of the free market? Foreign Affairs, 88(3), 40–55.
Bresser-Pereira, L. C. (2015). Reflecting on new developmentalism and classical developmentalism. Sao Paolo School of economics, Working Paper No. 395.
Brown, C. (2001). Understanding international relations. Houndmills: Palgrave.
Cardoso, E., & Helwege, A. (1991). Populism, profligacy, and redistribution. In R. Dornbusch & S. Edwards (Eds.), (1991b) The macroeconomics of populism in Latin America (pp. 45–74). University of Chicago Press.
Carney, R., & Witt, M. (2014). The role of the state in Asian business systems. In M. A. Witt & G. Redding (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Asian Business Systems (pp. 538–560). Oxford University Press.
Collier, D. (1991). Introduction. In D. Collier (Ed.), The new authoritarianism in Latin America (pp. 3–16). Princeton University Press.
Collier, R., & Collier, D. (1991). Shaping the political arena. Princeton University Press.
de la Torre, C. (2017). Populism in Latin America. In: Rovira Kaltwasser, C., Taggart, P. Ochoa Espejo, P. & Ostiguy, P. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dippel, C., Gold, R. & Heblich, S. (2015). Globalization and its (dis-)content: Trade shocks and voting behaviour. NBER Working Paper 21812.
Dornbusch, R., & Edwards, S. (1990). Macroeconomic populism. Journal of Development Economics, 32(2), 247–277.
Dornbusch, R., & Edwards, S. (1991). The Macroeconomics of Populism. In R. Dornbusch & S. Edwards (Eds.), The macroeconomics of populism in Latin America (pp. 7–13). University of Chicago Press.
Dovis, A., Golosov, M. & Shourideh, A. (2016). Political Economy of Sovereign Debt: A Theory of Cycles of Populism and Austerity. NBER Working Paper No. 21948.
Drake, P. (1982). Conclusion: Requiem for populism? In: Conniff, M. L. (Ed.) Latin American populism in comparative perspective- University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.
Drake, P. (2012). Chile’s populism reconsidered, 1920s–1990s. In M. Conniff (Ed.), Populism in Latin America (2nd ed., pp. 71–85). The University of Alabama Press.
Edwards, S. (2010). Left behind: Latin America and the false promise of populism. University of Chicago Press.
Edwards, S. (2019, October). On Latin American populism, and its echoes around the world. NBER Working Paper 26333. Cambridge, MA.
Eichengreen, B. (2018). The populist temptation: Economic grievance and political reaction in the modern era. Oxford University Press.
Fainshmidt, S., Judge, W. Q., Aguilera, R. V., & Smith, A. (2018). Varieties of institutional systems: A contextual taxonomy of understudied countries. Journal of World Business, 53(3), 307–322.
Farkas, B. (2011). The central and Eastern European model of capitalism. Post-Communist Economies, 23(1), 15–34.
Filc, D. (2010). The political right in Israel: Different faces of Jewish populism London: Routledge.
Gerőcs, T., & Ricz, J. (2021). The post-crisis developmental state. Perspectives from the global periphery. Palgrave Macmillan.
Greskovits, B. (1998). The political economy of protest and patience: East European and Latin American transformations compared. CEU Press
Grinberg, N. (2016). From populist developmentalism to liberal neodevelopmentalism: The specificity and historical development of Brazilian capital accumulation. Critical Historical Studies 3(1).
Guiso, L., Herrera, H., Morelli, M. & Sonno, T. (2017). Populism: Demand and supply. CEPR Discussison Paper no. 11871.
György, L. (2017). Egyensúlyteremtés: A gazdaságpolitika missziója (Creating balance: The mission of economic policy) (Budapest, Századvég Kiadó)
Hawkins, K. (2009). Is Chávez populist? Measuring populist discourse in comparative perspective. Comparative Political Studies, 42(8), 1040–1067.
Inglehart, R. & Norris, P. (2016). Trump, brexit and the rise of populism: Economic have-nots and cultural backlash. Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Research Working Paper Series 16–026.
Kaufman, R., & Stallings, B. (1991). The political economy of Latin American populism. In R. Dornbusch & S. Edwards (Eds.), (1991b) The macroeconomics of populism in Latin America (pp. 15–43). University of Chicago Press.
Levitsky, S., & Loxton, J. (2013). Populism and competitive authoritarianism in the Andes. Democratization, 20(1), 107–136.
Levitsky, S., & Way, L. (2010). Competitive authoritarianism: Hybrid regimes after the cold war. Cambridge University Press.
Gy., & Matolcsy. (2020). Egyensúly és növekedés (Balance and growth), 2010–2019. Pallas Athéné Books.
Medve-Bálint, G. (2014). The role of the EU in shaping FDI flows to East Central Europe. Journal of Common Market Studies, 52(1), 35–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12077
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 541–563.
Mudde, C. & Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (2013). Exclusionary vs. inclusionary populism: Comparing contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition, 48(2), 147–174.
Mudde, C., & Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (2018). Studying populism in comparative perspective: Reflections on the contemporary and future research agenda. Comparative Political Studies, 1(13), 1667–1693.
Naczyk, M. (2021). Taking back control: Comprador bankers and managerial developmentalism in Poland. Review of International Political Economy, 1–25.
Nölke, A. & Vliegenthart, A. (2009). Enlarging the varieties of capitalism. The emergence of dependent market economies in east central Europe. World Politics, 61(4), 670–702.
O’Donnell, G. (1971) Modernization and bureaucratic-authoritarianism: Studies in South American Politics. University of California.
Orbán, V. (2014, July 29). The era of the work-based state is approaching’ speech in Tusnádfürdő (Baile Tusnad, Romania) at the 25th Bálványos Summer Free University. https://2010-2015.miniszterelnok.hu/in_english_article/the_era_of_the_work-based_state_is_approaching, Accessed October 22, 2021.
Orenstein, M. A., & Bugaric, B. (2020). Work, family, fatherland: The political economy of populism in central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 29(2), 176–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2020.1832557
Prebisch, R. (1962). The economic development of Latin America and its principal problems. Economic Bulletin for Latin America, 7(1), 1–22.
Ricz, J. (2021). The anatomy of the newly emerging illiberal model of state capitalism: A developmental dead end? International Journal of Public Administration, 44(14), 1253–1263.
Roberts, K. (1995). Neoliberalism and the transformation of populism in Latin America: The peruvian case. World Politics, 48(1), 82–116.
Rodrik, D. (2018a). Populism and the economics of globalization. Journal of International Business Policy, 1(1-2), 12–33.
Rodrik, D. (2018b). Is populism necessarily bad economics? AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108, 196–199.
Rostow, W. (1960). The stages of economic growth: A non-communist manifesto. Cambridge University Press.
Sachs, J. (1989). Social conflict and populist policies in Latin America. NBER Working Paper Series 2897.
Sallai, D., & Schnyder, G. (2021). What is “Authoritarian” about authoritarian capitalism? The dual erosion of the private–public divide in state-dominated business systems. Business & Society, 60(6), 1312–1348.
Sass, M. (2017). Catching-up opportunities for East Central Europe in the era of global value chains. Gazdaság És Társadalom, 9(2), 5–22.
Sata, R., & Karolewski, I. P. (2020). Caesarean politics in Hungary and Poland. East European Politics, 36(2), 206–225.
Scheiring, G. (2020). The retreat of liberal democracy: Authoritarian Capitalism and the accumulative state in Hungary. Palgrave Macmillan.
Szanyi, M. (2019). The emergence of patronage and changing forms of rent-seeking in East Central Europe. Post-Communist Economies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631377.2019.1693738
Taggart, P. (2000). Populism. Open University Press.
Voszka, É. (2018). Nationalisation in Hungary in the post-crisis years: A specific twist on a European trend? Europe-Asia Studies, 70(8), 1281–1302.
Wade, R. H. (1990). Governing the market—economic theory and the role of government in East Asian industrialization. Princeton University Press.
Wallerstein, I. (1983) Historical capitalism with capitalist civilization. London Verso.
Weyland, K. (1996). Neopopulism and neoliberalism in Latin America: Unexpected affinities. Studies in Comparative International Development, 31(3), 3–31.
Weyland, K. (2001). Clarifying a contested concept: Populism in the study of Latin American politics. Comparative Politics, 34(1), 1–22.
Weyland, K. (2013). The threat from the populist left. Journal of Democracy, 24(3), 18–32.
Weyland, K. (2017). A political-strategic approach. In Rovira Kaltwasser, Cristóbal, Paul Taggart, Paulina Ochoa Espejo and Pierre Ostiguy (szerk.) The Oxford handbook of populism. Oxford University Press, 48–72.
Wilkin, P. (2016). Hungary’s crisis of democracy: The road to serfdom. Lexington Press.
Williamson, J. (1994). The political economy of policy reform. Columbia University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Benczes, I. (2023). Populism and/or Developmentalism: Past and Present Experiences. In: Ricz, J., Gerőcs, T. (eds) The Political Economy of Emerging Markets and Alternative Development Paths. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20702-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20702-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-20701-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-20702-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)