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Why Reform Fails: The 'Politics of Policies' in Costa Rican Telecommunications Liberalization

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  • Hoffmann, Bert

Abstract

As the 'Washington Consensus' reforms are losing momentum in Latin America, the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) is calling for shifting the focus from the content of policy choices to the political process of their implementation. As this paper studies the paradigmatic case of telecommunications reform in Costa Rica it underscores the importance of these 'politics of policies'. The analysis finds, however, that the failure of repeated liberalization initiatives was not only due to policy-makers' errors in steering the project through 'the messy world of politics' (IDB); instead, as liberalization remained unpopular, policy content indeed mattered, and only the interaction of both explains the outcome. Particular attention is drawn to the political feed-back effects, as the failed reform, precisely because it had been backed by bi-partisan support, became a catalyst for the disintegration of the country's long-standing two-party system.

Suggested Citation

  • Hoffmann, Bert, 2007. "Why Reform Fails: The 'Politics of Policies' in Costa Rican Telecommunications Liberalization," GIGA Working Papers 47, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:47
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bulmer-Thomas,Victor, 1987. "The Political Economy of Central America since 1920," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521348393, October.
    2. Raventos, P., 1998. "Telecommunications in Central America," Papers 648, Harvard - Institute for International Development.
    3. Benedicte Bull, 2005. "Aid, Power, and Privatization," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3683.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Huhn, Sebastian, 2009. "The Culture of Fear and Control in Costa Rica (II): The Talk of Crime and Social Changes," GIGA Working Papers 108, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Huhn, Sebastian, 2008. "A History of Nonviolence: Insecurity and the Normative Power of the Imagined in Costa Rica," GIGA Working Papers 84, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    liberalization; privatization; telecommunications; public enterprises; Costa Rica; development model; Inter-American Development Bank;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
    • E65 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

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