Neoliberal reforms can proceed without an authoritarian political system

Evidence

The Pinochet regime fostered highly personalized channels of communication with the “economic change team” and allowed it a high degree of autonomy in the pursuit of neoliberal planning activities and structural reforms. This has been confirmed by insiders such as the “godfather” of the Chicago boys, Arnold Harberger: “Given that there was a military government, the idea that they were willing to cede economic authority to a group of technocrats made that transition easier than it would have been in a democratic context of the same time and place” (Harberger 1999). Yet Harberger did not subscribe to the perspective of scholars who argued that a radical break with long-established institutional arrangements and the exaction of high social costs involved in the neoliberal adjustment process necessarily required an authoritarian political system (Foxley 1986; Martínez and Díaz 1996). To counter the position of these scholars, Harberger cited the experience of other countries that had carried out neoliberal reforms: “Then what happened is that one democratic government after another in Latin America adopted virtually identical reforms… . So you can’t say that these reforms are inevitably shackled to a military government” (Harberger 1999). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1542

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debates about the ‘authoritarian liberalism’ thesis and the Pinochet-Chicago boys literature; the reader’s own chapter on sacrifice/stability of stratified societies parallels the argument that authoritarian contexts enabled technocratic cession of power. — connects to: Crises have not discredited neoliberal governance — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 749; Neoliberal restructuring was imposed illegitimately and shielded from future democratic reversal. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 275; Neoliberal reforms pushed states toward authoritarian repression to enforce unpopular policies — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 452 (+7 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the counterexample claim that democratic Latin American governments adopted identical reforms — which countries precisely, and what did Harberger point to?

Broader Connections

• Dictatorship solved the neoliberal problem of replacing popular sovereignty with market sovereignty #contradicts (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 330
• Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination #complicates (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 153
• Neoliberalism strengthens repressive state apparatuses rather than shrinking government #complicates (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1748
• Neoliberalism seeks a strong state that thwarts democracy, not a weak one #qualifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 155
• Neoliberalism is a reprogramming of liberal governmentality, not a reaction to capitalist crisis #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 83