Waves of Neoliberalism: Revisiting the Authoritarian patterns of capitalism in South America (1940-1990), part I

This paper is the first part of a reconstruction of the evolution of neoliberalism in Peru throughout its different historical waves. The Peruvian case was an ideological precursor of the South American neoliberal authoritarianism before the 1950s. In this regard, I challenge a standard historical narrative that states neoliberalism is an outcome of the transfer of ideas like the case of the Chilean Chicago-Boys and their other Latin American counterparts (Valdés 1995). The Peruvian experience also constituted an opening episode of the deep transnational connection between the main neoliberal networks (Walter Lippmann Colloquium and the Mont Pèlerin Society) and Latin American economic experts. Since late 1940s, neoliberal intellectuals have implemented institutions and a hegemonic discourse affecting current economic affairs in Peru. They played a role in influencing public opinion through political relations and media outlets and directly devising economic policies. The discourse and actions of the neoliberals in Peru have left institutional legacies targeting topics as economic systems, the fiscal and monetary policies, the role of the State, development policies, the private initiative and foreign aid.