Working Papers #161 - 170

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Peruvian Economic Policy in the 1980s: From Orthodoxy to Heterodoxy and Back

Manuel Pastor, Jr. and Carol Wise

Working Paper #161 - May 1991

Manuel Pastor, Jr. teaches economics at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Kellogg National Fellow, and a Fulbright Fellow and is the author of several articles on debt and stabilization. He completed a book comparing the macroeconomic policies of Peru and Bolivia in the 1980s.

Carol Wise was a Kellogg Residential Fellow in 1988 and completed a doctoral dissertation, entitled "Peru Post 1968: The Political Limits to State-Led Economic Development," at Columbia University in 1990. She is presently Visiting Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The authors would like to thank Luis Arreaga, Mercedes Inez Carazo, Daniel Carbonetto, Jorge Chavez Alvarez, Oscar Dancourt, Cesar Herrara, Jenny Hoyle Cox, Esteban Hynilizca, Jurgen Schuldt, Julio Velarde, and many others for their insightful comments and criticism during visits to Lima in 1985-88 and 1990. Thanks also to the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and the Universidad del Pacífico for their institutional support. Finally, they thank the Fulbright Commission-Lima for its financial support over the years; Manuel Pastor also thanks the Guggenheim Foundation for its more recent support. This paper is dedicated to Alex Secada.

Abstract

This paper examines the dramatic fluctuations in Peruvian macroeconomic policy in the 1980s. We trace the failure of "orthodox" or neoliberal policy in the first half of the decade to external shocks, economic inconsistencies, and the erosion of the state's institutional and administrative capacities. These difficulties paved the way for the triumph of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party in 1985 and the subsequent adoption of a "heterodox" economic program. This program "worked" briefly, then collapsed owing to inattention to the external sector, a flawed approach to inflation control, rising class conflict, and the state's continuing inability to implement its decisions. We close by reviewing the legacy of the decade: deepening social cleavages, highly volatile politics, international isolation, a severely weakened state, and a populace wary of new policy shifts.

Resumen

El trabajo examinas las dramáticas fluctuaciones de las políticas macroeconómicas peruanas en los 1980s. Trazamos la fallida política "ortodoxa" o neoliberal de la primera mitad de la década debido a "shocks" externos, inconsistencias económicas y la erosión de las capacidades institucionales y administrativas del estado. Estas dificultades facilitaron el camino para el triunfo del partido Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA) en 1985 y la subsecuente adopción de un programa económico "heterodoxo." Este programa "funcionó" brevemente, después se derrumbó debido a la falta de atención del sector externo y del control inflacionario, incrementando el conflicto de clase, y a la ineptitud contínua del gobierno para implementar sus decisiones. Terminamos revisando el legado de la década: profundización de las divisiones sociales, políticas sumamente volátiles, aislamiento internacional, un estado severamente debilitado y una población desconfiada ante nuevos cambios políticos.

(33 pages)

America Astray

Francisco C. Weffort

Working Paper #162 - July 1991

Francisco C. Weffort is Professor of Political Science at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary Culture (CEDEC). During the 1990-91 academic year he was Hewlett Residential Fellow of the Kellogg Institute and Visiting Professor of the University of Notre Dame's Department of Sociology.

This paper is a modified and enlarged version of the author's contribution to the collective book in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Peruvian Studies (IEP).

Abstract

This paper discusses the relations between the socioeconomic crisis and the democratization process in Latin America during the '80s. The author proposes that this crisis manifests itself in situations of anomie and social fragmentation, in certain cases close to a social apartheid scenario, that evoke doubts about the national feasibility of those countries. Thus the paper argues that the consolidation of political democracy depends on the resumption of economic development and regional integration, which could prepare these countries for a new insertion into the international economic system.

Resumen

Este ensaio trata das relações entre a crise socio-económica e o processo de democratização na America Latina, nos anos 80. Considera que a crise se manifesta através de situações de anomia e de fragmentação social que, em alguns casos, se aproximam de um cenário de apartheid social que coloca em questão a própria viabilidade nacional. Este trabalho considera que, assim, a consolidação da democracia depende da capacidade desses paises retomarem o desenvolvimento económico e de definirem uma perspectiva de integraçåo regional que os capacite para a sua reinserção no sistema económico internacional.

(29 pages)

The Institution of a Stockmarket in a Socialist Economy: Notes on the Chinese Economic Reform Program

Ajit Singh

Working Paper #163 - August 1991

Ajit Singh, an Indian economist who graduated from Punjab University and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, is currently Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics at Queens' College, University of Cambridge. He is a Visiting Departmental Fellow of the Kellogg Institute and holds the Dr. William M. Scholl Visiting Chair in the Department of Economics at Notre Dame. He has been a senior economic advisor to the governments of Mexico and Tanzania and a consultant to the ILO, FAO, UNCTAD, and UNIDO. He is the author of Takeovers: Their Relevance to the Stockmarket and the Theory of the Firm and coauthor of Growth, Profitability and Valuation, both published by Cambridge University Press. His research has been concerned with North-South interactions and problems of the long-term growth of the world economy.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with three questions: (a) how would a stockmarket help economic and industrial development in a country like China; (b) will a stockmarket be system-compatible; and (c) if a full-fledged stockmarket is indeed introduced in a socialist economy, can its "negative influences" (speculation, booms and crashes) be minimized? These issues are examined analytically with the help of empirical evidence of stockmarket behavior in advanced and newly industrializing economies. Although the paper considers the specific case of China, the argument is more general and has application to other developing as well as centrally planned economies.

Resumen

Este artículo plantea tres preguntas: (a) cómo podría contribuir un mercado de valores al desarrollo económico e industrial de un país como China; (b) sería compatible con el sistema un mercado de valores; y (c) si se introduce un mercado de valores completamente desarrollado en una economía socialista, ¿pueden reducirse sus "influencias negativas" (especulación, auges y crisis)? Se examina estas cuestiones de manera analítica con base en la evidencia empírica sobre el comportamiento del mercado de valores en las economías avanzadas y las de industrialización reciente. Aunque este artículo analiza el caso específico de China, el argumento es de carácter más general y podría aplicarse a otras clases de economías en desarrollo tanto si como a aquellas con planificación centralizada.

(19 pages)

From National Corporatism to Transitional Pluralism: European Interest Politics and the Single Market

Wolfgang Streeck

Working Paper #164 - August 1991

Wolfgang Streeck is Professor of Sociology and Industrial Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has held positions as Senior Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin (1988); Visiting Professor at the European University Institute, Florence (1983-84); Leverhulme Visiting Professor in European Industrial Relations at the University of Warwick (1985); Visiting Professor at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Madrid (1988); and Fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, California. He has published extensively on trade unions, business associations, industrial relations, and politics in West Germany and advanced industrial societies.

Abstract

The paper explores the emerging role of organized interests, especially of labor unions, in the polity of the post-1992 European Community. It begins by reviewing the causes of the Community's failure in the 1960s and 1970s to develop a neocorporatist system of interest representation. It then analyzes the decline of national-level neocorporatism in the years after the second "oil shock," and relates the "Internal Market" project to that development. In particular, the paper argues that the relaunching of European integration in the mid-1980s is inextricably linked to a domestic European "deregulation" project, which in turn responds to the diminished "effective sovereignty" of nation-states over their highly interdependent national economies. It also points out that the newly forming state-like structures at the European level lack the capacity to effectively promote neocorporatist, tripartite concertation. Examining the regional, national, and supranational level of policy-making in the Internal Market, the paper concludes that European interest politics is likely to be more pluralist than corporatist, and will share important characteristics with the political system of the United States.

Resumen

Este artículo examina el papel emergente de los grupos de interés, especialmente de los sindicatos, en la política de la Comunidad Europea posterior a 1992. Empieza haciendo una revisión de las causas del fracaso de la Comunidad, en los años sesenta y setenta, para desarrollar un sistema neocorporativista de representación de intereses. Posteriormente analiza la decadencia del neocorporativismo a nivel nacional durante el período que siguió al segundo "choque petrolero", y relaciona el proyecto del "Mercado Interno" a dicho desarrollo. En particular, el artículo sostiene que el renovado interés por la integración europea a mediados de la década de los ochentas se encuentra inextricablemente vinculado a un proyecto europeo de "desregulación interna, el cual obedece, a su vez, a la decreciente "soberanía efectiva" de los estados-nación sobre sus economías nacionales altamente interdependientes. También señala que las estructuras de tipo estatal recientemente formadas a nivel europeo, carecen de la capacidad para promover efectivamente la concertación tripartita, neocorporativista. Al examinar la política a nivel regional, nacional y supranacional, el artículo concluye que la política de los grupos de interés en Europa tiende a ser más pluralista que corporativista, y compartirá características importantes con el sistema político de los Estados Unidos.

(29 pages)

Working-Class Protest in Socialist Spain

Lynne Wozniak

Working Paper #165 - October 1991

Lynne Wozniak, Assistant Professor in Notre Dame's Department of Government and International Studies and Departmental Fellow of the Kellogg Institute, obtained her Ph.D. from Cornell University. Her current research focuses on the impact of social movements, especially labor movements, on democratic consolidation, and the problems of economic restructuring in newly democratized regimes. She has been Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and at the Fundación de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociológicas (FIES) in Madrid, Spain.

Field research for this paper was funded by the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and Fulbright-Hays.

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the Spanish labor movement's response to the Socialist Government's 1983 industrial modernization program for the steel and shipbuilding sectors. Spanish workers in these two sectors were able to exact from the government the most generous recompensation package of all European workers affected by industrial modernization. I argue that it was not the unions but the factory councils that led a successful revolt against the government's plans. My analysis is a synthesis of two strands of social movement research: the political process model and resource mobilization theory. I find that changes in the "political opportunity structure" wrought by the Socialist Party's ascent to power rendered the trade unions ineffective, while resources available to workers inside the plant empowered the factory councils.

Resumen

En este trabajo analizo la respuesta del movimiento laboral español al programa de modernización industrial propuesto por el gobierno socialista en 1983 para los sectores siderúrgico y de construcción naval. Los trabajadores españoles de estos dos sectores fueron capaces de obtener del gobierno el paquete más amplio de medidas compensatorias que hayan obtenido trabajadores europeos afectados por la modernización industrial. Argumento que no fueron los sindicatos sino los comites de empresa los que dirigieron la revuelta exitosa contra los planes del gobierno. Mi análisis constituye una síntesis de dos corrientes de investigación de los movimientos sociales: el modelo del proceso político y la teoría de la movilización de recursos. Encuentro que los cambios en la "estructura de oportunidad política" forjados por el ascenso al poder del partido socialista volvieron inefectivos a los sindicatos, mientras que los recursos de que disponían los trabajadores en las plantas fortalecieron el poder de los comites de empresa.

(25 pages)

The Korean Miracle (1962-1980) Revisited: Myths and Realities in Strategy and Development

Kwan S. Kim

Working Paper #166 - November 1991

Kwan S. Kim is Professor of Economics and Departmental Fellow of the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame. He is a development economist, occasionally serving as an economic consultant for governments of developing countries and for international agencies. His career includes four years as a Rockefeller Foundation scholar in East Africa, two years as a senior economist with the Agency for International Development, and short stints as an economic advisor or consultant at such institutions as the Hudson Institute, UNIDO, and the National Financiera in Mexico. He has published extensively in over fifty professional journals and edited volumes in the areas of development studies, international trade, econometrics, development planning, and industrialization, with a special interest in East Africa, East Asia, and Mexico, and edited Papers on the Political Economy of Tanzania and Debt and Development in Latin America. He is author of Industrial Policy and Development in South Korea, and coauthor of Development Strategies for the Future of Mexico and Korean Agricultural Research: The Integration of Research and Extension.

Abstract

Among all the newly industrializing countries, South Korea's development strategies, as implemented during the period of export-driven industrialization (1962-80), stand out as a model case in which rapid industrialization has been achieved by means of articulate trade and industrial policies. This paper, taking the historical perspective, critically examines the country's industrial policies and their consequences in development. The analysis focuses on the framework of strategies, the methods and policy instruments, and the implementation aspects of policies formulated. The discussions relate to sector-targeted policy measures as well as macroeconomic policies in the fields of foreign trade, foreign investment, financing and credit, public and private sectors, and technological development. The paper concludes with an overall evaluation of the efficacy and limitations of Korea's industrialization strategies; in particular it addresses the issue of replicability to other countries by placing their lessons in a proper historical, sociocultural perspective.

Resumen

Las estrategias de desarrollo de Corea del Sur, llevadas a cabo durante el período de industrialización orientada hacia la exportación (1962-80), sobresalen, entre los países de industrialización reciente, como un caso modelo en el cual se alcanzó una rápida industrialización mediante una combinación consistente de políticas industriales y de comercio exterior. Este trabajo adopta una perspectiva histórica para analizar críticamente las políticas industriales de dicho país y las consecuencias que tuvieron en su proceso de desarrollo. El trabajo está enfocado a examinar el marco de las estrategias, los métodos y los instrumentos de política, y aspectos relacionados con la implementación de las políticas formuladas. La discusión gira en torno a las medidas de política sectoriales y de política macroeconómica en los ámbitos del comercio exterior, la inversión extranjera, el crédito y el financiamiento, los sectores público y privado, y el desarrollo tecnológico. El trabajo concluye con una evaluación general sobre la eficacia y las limitaciones de las estrategias de industrialización de Corea; y dirige su atención en particular al tema de su aplicabilidad en otros países, situando sus enseñanzas en una perspectiva histórica y sociocultural adecuada.

(60 pages)

Labor Movements and Political Systems: A Conceptual and Typological Analysis*

J. Samuel Valenzuela

Working Paper #167 - December 1991

J. Samuel Valenzuela is a Senior Fellow of the Kellogg Institute and Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Democratización vía reforma: La expansión del sufragio en Chile; coeditor of Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective of Military Rule in Chile: Dictatorships and Oppositions, and of Chile: Politics and Society; and editor of Labor Movements in Transitions to Democracy (University of Notre Dame Press, 1988). His articles on comparative labor, development theory, and political change have appeared in English, Spanish, Italian, and French publications.

* This is a much revised and translated version of a paper first written for a session chaired by Elizabeth Jelin at the World Congress of Sociology in Mexico City in 1982. It subsequently appeared unchanged in Desarrollo Económico, vol. 23, no. 91 (October-December 1983). I thank Robert Fishman, Jorge Domínguez, and Francisco Zapata for their comments on the early drafts of this paper. My gratitude as well to Alessandro Pizzorno, Marino Regini, and Peter Lange, who contributed to my understanding of labor movements. Raimundo Valenzuela assisted with the translation of the original text; his help is also greatly appreciated.

This paper appeared in Marino Regini, ed., The Future of Labor Movements (Sage Publications: 1994).

Abstract

This paper examines variations in the imbrication of labor movements are inserted into national political systems in capitalist countries of the Americas and Europe. The author shows how the differences in these modes of insertion depend on four dimensions: first, the historical process through which the labor unions reached their organizational consolidation; second, the unity or fractionalization of the labor movement; third, the nature of the links between unions and parties; and fourth, the kind of political regime in which labor must act. On the basis of this conceptual groundwork, the paper discusses five types of insertion of labor movements into national political processes-three under democratic regimes and two under authoritarian regimes. More such types can be developed by drawing finer distinctions.

Resumen

Este ensayo examina las variaciones que presentan los modos de inserción de los movimentos obreros en los sistemas políticos de los países capitalistas de América y Europa. Estas dependen de cuatro dimensiones: primero, el proceso histórico a través del cual los movimientos sindicales alcanzaron su consolidación organizacional; segundo, la unidad o el fraccionamiento del movimiento obrero; tercero, la naturaleza de los vínculos entre sindicatos y partidos; y cuarto, las peculiaridades del régimen político en el cual deben actuar los movimientos obreros. Dadas las diferencias en estas cuatro dimensiones, el autor discute cinco tipos de inserción de los movimientos obreros en los sistemas políticos de estos países, tres de los cuales son bajo regímenes democráticos y dos bajo regímenes autoritarios. Se podrían desarrollar más tipos si se hacen distinciones mas finas.

(41 pages)

Strategic Choice Models of Political Change in Latin America

David Collier and Deborah L. Norden

Working Paper #168 - December 1991

David Collier is Professor and Department Chair in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has recently published Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, The Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America; and The Comparative Method: Two Decades of Change.

Deborah L. Norden completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes on military politics and democratization in Latin America, with a focus on Argentina.

Abstract

This article assesses the use of strategic choice models in the study of Latin American politics. These models explore how given actors pursue goals by shaping the context in which other actors make choices. The discussion centers on Hirsch-man's analysis of "reform-mongering," Przeworski's "threshold" model of transitions to democracy, and O'Donnell's model of democratic consoli-dation.

Basic components of the models are examined, including the defi-ni-tion of actors, preference distributions, coalitional thresholds, perceptions of the likelihood of given outcomes, and efforts to change actual and perceived costs of these outcomes. The relationship between such models and more familiar perspec-tives in the Latin American field is then explored. The models have a distinctive emphasis on uncertainty and the creative use of uncertainty by political leaders; yet they also have much in common with other research tradi-tions. The article advocates eclecticism in employing these alternative analytic approaches.

Resumen

Este trabajo evalúa la utilización de modelos de elección estratégica para el estudio de la política latinoamericana. Estos modelos analizan como determinados actores persiguen ciertas metas modificando el contexto en el que otros actores toman decisiones. La discusión gira en torno al análisis del "afán reformista" de Hirschman, al modelo de "las condiciones mínimas necesarias" para la transición hacia la democracia de Przeworski, y al modelo de la consolidación democrática de O'Donnell.

En el trabajo se analizan los componentes básicos de estos modelos, incluyendo la definición de los actores, la distribución de preferencias, las condiciones mínimas necesarias para las coaliciones, las percepciones sobre la probabilidad de determinados sucesos, así como los esfuerzos para modificar tanto los costos reales como los percibidos de dichos sucesos. Es así como se examina la relación entre dichos modelos y otros enfoques más comunes en el ámbito latinoamericano. Un rasgo distintivo de los modelos es el énfasis que ponen en la incertidumbre y en el uso creativo de ésta por parte de los líderes políticos; sin embargo, tienen también mucho en común con otras tradiciones de investigación. Este trabajo aboga por el eclecticismo en el uso de enfoques analíticos alternativos.

(18 pages)

Unions, Social Structures, and Wage Restraint: A Suggested Scheme of Analysis

Edward J. Amadeo

Working Paper #169 - January 1992

Edward J. Amadeo, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at PUC-RJ, obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1985. He has been external consultant for the Brazilian Central Bank, WIDER, PREALC/ILO, the World Bank, and UNRISD. Among extensive publications, he has authored Keynes's Principle of Effective Demand (1989) and coauthored, with Amitava K. Dutt, Keynes's Third Alternative? The Neo-Ricardian Keynesians and the Post-Keynesians (1990) and, with Marcello Estevão, A Teoria Econômica do Desemprego (1991). He is editor of John Maynard Keynes: cinquenta anos da Teoria Geral (1989) and Ensaios sobre Economia Política Moderna (1990). He completed the book, Institutional Constraints to Economic Policies: Wage Bargaining and Stabilization in Brazil (University of Notre Dame Press: 1992).

This paper was written during the author's stay at the University of Notre Dame as Visiting Professor of the Department of Economics and Visiting Departmental Fellow of the Kellogg Institute, spring 1991. He is grateful to Ernest Bartell, c.s.c., Samuel Valenzuela, and Amitava Dutt for their comments in a seminar presented at the Kellogg Institute series. Kurt Weyland, Francisco Weffort, and Roberto DaMatta provided insightful suggestions for which he is also very thankful.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on the relation between institutional aspects of wage bargaining and stabilization policies. The paper starts with a discussion of the logics of unions' attitudes in wage bargaining in an attempt to highlight the costs and benefits associated with wage restraint. Next, it relates the conditions of wage restraint to the literature on union movement centralization, trade dependency, workers' militancy, neocorporatism, and stabilization policies. We then create a taxonomy of industrial relations systems, and identify two "ideal cases"-the corporatist and pluralist cases-and two "hybrid" cases. We conclude that certain hybrid characteristics have a potential to generate ustable macroeconomic outcomes, and to render particular economic policies either infeasible or ineffective.

Resumen

El objetivo del presente trabajo es presentar una revisión general de la bibliografía sobre la relación existente entre los aspectos institucionales de la negociación salarial y las políticas de estabilización. El trabajo comienza con una discusión sobre la lógica de las actitudes de los sindicatos en la negociación salarial, en un intento por destacar los costos y beneficios asociados con la moderación salarial. Enseguida relaciona las condiciones de la moderación salarial con la bibliografía sobre el grado de centralización del movimiento sindical, de apertura y dependencia comercial de la economía, la militancia de los trabajadores, el neocorporativismo y las políticas de estabilización. Esta discusión nos conduce a presentar una taxonomía de los sistemas de relaciones industriales, y a identificar dos "casos ideales"-los casos corporativista y pluralista-y dos casos "híbridos". Llegamos a la conclusión de que ciertas características de los casos híbridos pueden potencialmente generar resultados macroeconómicos inestables y volver impracticables o inefectivas ciertas políticas económicas.

(37 pages)

The Political Formation and Consolidation of Peak Business Associations: The Case of Peru

Francisco Durand

Working Paper #170 - January 1992

Francisco Durand, a Residential Fellow at the Institute during the 1991 spring semester, obtained his Ph.D. in Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his M.A. in Sociology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where he has been Associate Professor since 1981. He has also been Researcher at DESCO in Lima (1986-88) and Consultant to the United Nations Development Program (1987) and the Ford Foundation Office for the Southern Cone and Andean Region (1987-88). He has received doctoral research fellowships from the Inter-American, Ford, and Tinker Foundations. His book La década frustrada: Los industriales y el poder, 1970-1980 was published in Lima by DESCO in 1982. His articles include "La nueva derecha peruana: orígenes y dilemas" (Mexico, 1990) and "L'Affirmation de la bourgeoisie péruvienne comme acteur politique dans les années quatre-vingt" (Paris, 1990).

This paper was presented at a conference on "Business Elites and Democracy in Latin America," held at the Kellogg Institute in May 1991.

Abstract

This paper examines the question of business organization building in the 1980s, a time of economic and political transformation in Latin America. It focuses on the Peruvian case. The study of the Peruvian peak business association, CONFIEP, shows how the business sector was able to form and consolidate an umbrella organization that became the single spokesman of the private sector. A new generation of business leaders was able to mobilize the business sector around the peak association in order to face the challenges posed by the changing rules of the political game that came with the transition to democracy and macroeconomic policy changes. In the 1980s, the peak business association successfully struggled to obtain recognition among its peers and "others" (state, labor unions, political parties). CONFIEP became capable of recognizing the dangers of its own members' lack of coordination, and the association became less vulnerable to the state elite's efforts to exploit internal divisions. In the process of institutional consolidation, because of the political nature of this struggle, business leaders became national figures and decided to intervene in party politics.

Resumen

Este trabajo analiza el tema de la organización empresarial durante la década de los ochentas, período de transformaciones económicas y políticas en América Latina, y se concentra en el análisis del caso peruano. El estudio de la máxima asociación empresarial peruana, CONFIEP, muestra como el sector empresarial fue capaz de formar y consolidar una amplia organización que llegó a ser el único portavoz del sector privado. Una nueva generación de líderes empresariales fue capaz de mobilizar al sector empresarial alrededor de esta asociación cúpula con el objeto de hacer frente a los retos planteados por la modificación de las reglas del juego político que se dió con la transición hacia la democracia y con los cambios en la política macroeconómica. Durante los años ochenta, este organismo luchó con éxito para obtener el reconocimiento de los suyos y de los "otros" (el Estado, sindicatos, partidos políticos). CONFIEP fue capaz de identificar los peligros derivados de la falta de coordinación de sus miembros, y logró hacerse menos vulnerable a los esfuerzos de la élite estatal para sacar partido de las divisiones internas. Durante el proceso de consolidación institucional, debido a la naturaleza política de esa lucha, los líderes empresariales se convirtieron en figuras nacionales y decidieron intervenir en la política partidaria.

(26 pages)