In MakingIt, lessons from South America:
More hereLatin America is undergoing something of an industrial policy revolution of late. Having ditched its destructive neoliberal policies from 2000 onwards, and then having seen the supposed efficient-market foundations of the entire neoliberal model effectively blown apart by the global financial crash of 2008, it was inevitable that a major policy change was in order. Yet, today, the speed with which a new industrial policy movement is taking place has surprised many observers. These new policies are being informed both by important prior experience in Latin America, principally the import substitution industrialization (ISI) policy period (1950-1980), as well as by significant ‘best practices’ from elsewhere, notably from China, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Scandinavia and especially from Latin America’s own star performer, Brazil.
Photo: Simone Carneiro/UNIDO
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the rebirth of industrial policy in Latin America, however, is that there is a very definite focus on the specifically local aspects of industrial policy formulation and implementation. This specific focus arises for two reasons. First, many governments in Latin America have deliberately chosen to decentralize many of their activities and operations. Local services provision is not only more cost-effective. It also serves to promote greater accountability and transparency in governance. Decentralization has also been seen as a way of more directly involving ethnic and social groups long marginalized under authoritarian rule.
