The Politics of Expertise in Latin America

The ascendancy of technocratic personnel and their imposition of neo-liberal economic policies have come to define Latin American politics in the 1980s and 1990s. This book is the first comparative analysis of these events and their implications for the future of democracy on the continent. Individual chapters discuss the rise to power of these technocrats in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru as well as the historical antecedents of expert rule in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Preface - Notes on the Contributors - The Politics of Expertise in Latin America: Introduction; M.A.Centeno & P.Silva - The Quest for Modernity: Latin America's Technocratic Ideas in Historical Perspective; M.Baud - The Politics of Knowledge: Hayek and Technocracy; M.A.Centeno - Pablo Ramirez: A Political Technocrat avant-la-lettre; P.Silva - The Material Bases of Technocracy: Investor Confidence and Neoliberalism in Latin America; B.R.Schneider - The World Bank and the Transformation of Latin American Society; P.van Dijck - Economists in Party Politics: Chilean Democracy in the Era of the Markets; V.Montecinos - Stars of the Crisis: The Ascent of Economists in Peruvian Public Life; C.M.Conaghan - Feminism and Technocracy: Femocrats in Brazil in the Eighties; I.van Halsema - Technocrats and Politicians in the Democratic Politics of Argentina (1983-95); C.Huneeus - Technocracy a la Mexicana: Antecedent to Democracy?; R.A.Camp - References - Index