Samuelson on Populist Democracy, Fascist Capitalism and the Vicissitudes of South American Economic Development (1948–1997)
ISBN: 978-1-80071-141-9, eISBN: 978-1-80071-140-2
Publication date: 1 March 2021
Abstract
Paul Samuelson was attracted to the irregular economic development pattern of some South American countries because of the links between economic performance and political factors. He discussed the influence of “populist democracy” on Argentina’s relative economic stagnation, which, he argued in the 1970s and early 1980s, served as a dangerous paradigm for the American economy under stagflation. Stagflation phenomena marked the end of Samuelson’s “neoclassical synthesis.” Moreover, he applied his concept of “capitalist fascism” to deal with military dictatorships in Brazil and (especially) in Chile. The Brazilian translation of his Economics in 1973 brought about a correspondence with Brazilian economists about the “fascist” features of the regime. The main variable behind the South American economic and politically unstable processes discussed by Samuelson was economic inequality, which became also a conspicuous feature of the American economy since the adoption of market-based policies in the 1980s and after.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
This is a revised version of a keynote address to the biennial conference of ALAHPE (Latin American Association for the History of Economic Thought), Curitiba, November 20–22, 2019. I would like to thank Edward Nelson, Ana M. Bianchi, Joaquim Andrade, Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, Bruna Ingrao, Leonidas Montes, Geoff Harcourt, Persio Arida, Antonio Delfim Netto, Edmar Bacha, David Laidler, Leonidas Zelmanovitz, Eustaquio Reis, José R. Novaes de Almeida, Lionello Punzo, Joanilio Teixeira, Alexandre Andrada and especially an anonymous referee for helpful comments on earlier drafts. I benefited from discussion of some of the topics of the paper with Veronica Montecinos, Bernardo Mueller, Wagner Arienti, Sylvie Rivot and Robert Leonard. I would like to thank Elizabeth Dunn, Guido Erreygers, (the late) Gabriel Oliva Cunha, Edward Nelson, José Menudo, Pedro Teixeira, Paulo R. Almeida and Leonidas Montes for bibliographical support. I thank the Rubenstein Library (Duke University) for permission to quote from the Samuelson Papers. Natália Corado provided efficient research assistance. Research grant from CNPq is gratefully acknowledged.
Citation
Boianovsky, M. (2021), "Samuelson on Populist Democracy, Fascist Capitalism and the Vicissitudes of South American Economic Development (1948–1997)", Fiorito, L., Scheall, S. and Suprinyak, C.E. (Ed.) Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Selection of Papers Presented at the 2019 ALAHPE Conference (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 39A), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 7-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0743-41542021000039A002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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