Roy C. Nelson, Harnessing Globalization: The Promotion of Nontraditional Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2009), pp. xviii+262, $65.00, hb.
‘neoliberal moment ’ in Latin America have now faded somewhat. Rather than playing the leading role, neoliberal economists have been relegated to the supporting cast within the domestic politics of many countries in the region. In their introductory chapter, the editors, together with Marı́a José AlvarezRivadulla, provide a closer look at the internal changes that have shaped the economics profession in Latin America during the last 30 years. Their main argument revolves around the issue that Latin American economics has become more professionalised and internationalised both in research and in teaching, which effectively means that it has become ‘North Americanised ’. Four indicators to support this claim are mentioned : the increasing number of Latin American economists who receive their academic degree in the United States, often with financial support from US foundations or government agencies and based on inter-university agreements ; the increasing number of publications by Latin American economists in journals published in the United States ; the dominance of theories developed in the United States within national discourses in economics ; and the introduction of US-style curricula and graduate programmes at Latin American universities. The country chapters highlight important nuances to this general assessment, however. Despite the dominance of market-oriented ideas and theories in the corridors of political power, many countries have preserved a space for developmentalist and heterodox economists, although mostly reduced to the academic and journalistic spheres. While effectively controlling relevant government positions, neoliberal economists have not been able to synchronise the public discourse in Latin America with their beliefs. In addition, Latin American economists are expected to tackle policy-relevant questions more often than their peers in the United States, making economic pragmatism much more common among them than theoretical or ideological purity. In sum, the volume is useful as a detailed description of the evolution of professional communities of economists in several Latin American countries. It shows how these communities mirrored trends and tendencies that have shaped the discipline in the United States since the end of the Second World War. Yet Latin American economics has not become and is unlikely to become completely ‘North Americanised ’. In their epilogue, Montecinos and Markoff provide some evidence for the ‘Latinamericanisation of Latin American economics ’ in the aftermath of the neoliberal moment. They point to specific problems, structures and concomitant initiatives that set the Latin American profession of economists apart from its counterpart in the North. Distinct domestic institutions, both formal and informal, have prevented the wholesale adoption of professional and theoretical norms dominant within US economics.