Whatever Inconsistencies and Effects? Explaining the Resilience of the Policy Reforms Applied to Developing Countries - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Forum for Social Economics Année : 2015

Whatever Inconsistencies and Effects? Explaining the Resilience of the Policy Reforms Applied to Developing Countries

Alice Nicole Sindzingre

Résumé

Why is ‘neoliberalism’ still a predominant framework within economics and policymaking? The paper considers the mix of theoretical assumptions, causalities and policies known as the ‘Washington consensus’, focusing on developing countries. Firstly, it analyses their main elements, resilience and effects (the ‘lost decades in spite of policy reform’). Secondly, it examines the reasons of this resilience and argues that a reason is their adaptive capacity via constant exchanges between facts and conceptual assumptions, because this mix is constituted of heterogeneous elements (from neoclassical theory, ad hoc models or empirics-based policymaking): inconsistency is a core feature and as such its correction is irrelevant. These ‘adaptive inconsistencies’ are consolidated by the simultaneous theoretical/policy dimension of the mix. Its cognitive resilience is reinforced by the irrefutability of causations and the cause/effect time lag (‘after current costs, there will be gains’, e.g., growth), and is not challenged by the social costs of policies.
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-01644136 , version 1 (22-11-2017)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-01644136 , version 1

Citer

Alice Nicole Sindzingre. Whatever Inconsistencies and Effects? Explaining the Resilience of the Policy Reforms Applied to Developing Countries. Forum for Social Economics, 2015, 44, pp.159-178. ⟨hal-01644136⟩
37 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More