Neodevelopmentalism vs. Neoliberalism: Differential Evolutionary Institutional Structures and Policy Response in Brazil and Mexico

From 1983 onward, Mexico has unswervingly embraced neoliberalism, following the Washington Consensus. After haltingly sliding toward neoliberalism in the 1990s, Brazil has adopted an economic policy stance, sometimes termed "neodevelopmentalism," entailing a forceful and successful "growth with redistribution" strategy. Mexico, having embraced policy nihilism, has endured a relative stagnation in income and employment, accompanied by a rising incidence of poverty and massive emigration. This article offers an analysis of the differential institutional economic structures of these two Latin American countries that serves to explain their relative degrees of success and failure. An analysis of the forces and factors that allow for or inhibit evolutionary transformations in these structures must begin with the colonial era by examining the persistence and legacy of preindustrial institutions.