Acceso usuarios
Josep F. Mària Serrano
«The Washington Consensus» and the political economy of the «triumphant capitalism» [JOSEP MARIA] With the fall of the socialist regimes at the end of the 1980s, some political, economic and academic circles in the USA have formulated a list of economic policies that was supposed to become only «paradigm» of the capitalist economy. This paradigm is known with the name of «Washington Consensus», and was first introduced by John Williamson in an article in 1990 («What Washington means by Policy Reform»). A second and corrected version of the «Consensus» appeared in 1993, also written by Williamson («Democracy and the "Washington Consensus"»). The present article reviews the proposals of Williamson, and also the consequences of the economic policies derived from them, and implemented by the International Monetary Fund. Special stress is put in the contrast of the «Washington Consensus» with real economic performance in developing countries during the decade of the 1990. Conclusions highlight the importance of a Consensus, but criticises some methods of formulation and implementation of the concrete policies: especially the lack of dialogue among different «key actors» in economic processes, and the defficient inclusion of the problem of Equity.
