- Chasteen’s description of neoliberalism and the “Brick” (Economic Underpinnings of Dictatorship)

Question 1

what came after the Cold War in latin America?

Answer 1

neoliberalism

Question 2

what did the breakup of the Soviet Union leave the United States?

Answer 2

the breakup of the Soviet Union left the United States as the world champion of capitalism

Question 3

what did capitalism become?

Answer 3

capitalism became the only ideology in the world

Question 4

what’s the political ideology what accompanies capitalism?

Answer 4

liberalism

Question 5

why re the new generation of liberals called neoliberals?

Answer 5

because they are new, not because their ideology differs from the previous liberals

Question 6

what were the three main emphasis of neoliberalism?

Answer 6

free trade, export production and the doctrine of comparative advantage

Question 7

what did neoliberals embrace?

Answer 7

they embraced their faith in the free market

Question 8

since neoliberals had faith in the free market, what did they do?

Answer 8

they sold off the state-run corporations and public services that nationalists had created all over latin America as declarations of economic independence

Question 9

what did they do to capital flows?

Answer 9

they deregulated capital flows by removing nationalist inspired limits on profit that multinational corporations could freely take out of a country each year

Question 10

what did they do to the nationalist inspired subsidies?

Answer 10

they removed the nationalist inspired subsidies that made basic food stuffs and public services affordable for the poor

Question 11

what did their ideas however produce?

Answer 11

their ideas produced grossly unequal economic growth that eventually provoked a backlash

Question 12

how did neoliberals gains some credibility?

Answer 12

by weathering the debt crisis that had started in the 1980s

Question 13

what was another way neoliberalism acquired a sense of success?

Answer 13

by curbing hyperinflation

Question 14

how did neoliberals halter inflation?

Answer 14

during the 1990s, latin America was heralded among US investors as a great emerging market, offering vast investment opportunities

Question 15

what did US investment in latin America look like?

Answer 15

US fast food franchises sprang up in major cities from Chile to Mexico

Question 16

what did US investment lead to the creation of?

Answer 16

it led to the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Question 17

what did the creation of NAFTA lead to?

Answer 17

one year after the creation of NAFTA Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay created their own free trade zone called MERCOSUR

Question 18

what did Chile stand out as?

Answer 18

during this period Chile stood out as a neoliberal poster child

Question 19

by the 1990s what did Chile’s economy look like?

Answer 19

Chile had low inflation, good credit, steady growth, and diversified exports

Question 20

but just like anywhere else, in this type of economic who really benefitted?

Answer 20

the middle class

Question 21

what was chile’s distribution of wealth like?

Answer 21

chile’s distribution of wealth remained among the most unequal in Latin America

Question 22

in other words, what did the best case scenario of liberalism result in?

Answer 22

the best case scenario of liberalism resulted in giving the least to the neediest

Question 23

what were the poor’s salary like?

Answer 23

most of the wages earned by Latin America’s poor went to basic necessities like food and bus fares

Question 24

meanwhile what was the neoliberal reforms doing?

Answer 24

the neoliberal reforms reduced government spending a step toward balancing national budgets and reducing debt, but at a bitter social cost

Question 25

In many ways, what did the neoliberal reforms resemble?

Answer 25

the impact of the neoliberal reforms resembled the impact of the reforms in 1870-1930

Question 26

how did Latin America change under liberal rule and who ended up being left behind?

Answer 26

latin America became more modern in the technological sense. Foreign capital poured in, The lives of middle class people improved by the poor majority was left behind

Question 27

by the year 2000 what did Latin Americans realize?

Answer 27

by 2000, Latin Americans were remembering why they had loved nationalist leaders who stood for the idea that the common people must not be left behind

Question 28

even for middle class people, what changed by the 1990s?

Answer 28

the optimism of the 1990s evaporated afterwards as globalization failed notably to produce universal prosperity

Question 29

gradually what started to happen in country after country in latin America?

Answer 29

gradually in country after country voters began to reject the neoliberal vision of free market supremacy by electing presidents who embodied nationalist traditions