Jewellord Nem Singh

Reconstituting the Neostructuralist State: the political economy of continuity and change in Chilean mining policy

The Chilean governance model of resource extraction challenges the view that post-neoliberalism is an opposing development model rejecting the Washington Consensus, which is constitutive of neoliberal governance. Instead, post-neoliberalism is continuity with change, where marketised governance in mining is maintained by the Chilean state yet certain policy agendas are introduced in response to the failures of staunchly private sector-driven development. Neostructuralism follows the logic of productivism, which emphasise the depoliticisation of copper management and the political exclusion of voices critical of the model. However, it breaks away from the typical mode of neoliberalism because there exist political spaces for contestation of copper policy, particularly through the re-regulation of labour practices and the passage of royalty law to address Chiles vulnerabilities to external factors affecting copper production. The article contributes to the understanding of continuities and changes in post-neoliberal Latin America by unpacking the elements of natural resource governance in one of the most widely cited successful cases of a mining-based development model in the developing world.Abstract The Chilean governance model of resource extraction challenges the view that post-neoliberalism is an opposing development model rejecting the Washington Consensus, which is constitutive of neoliberal governance. Instead, post-neoliberalism is continuity with change, where marketised governance in mining is maintained by the Chilean state yet certain policy agendas are introduced in response to the failures of staunchly private sector-driven development. Neostructuralism follows the logic of productivism, which emphasise the depoliticisation of copper management and the political exclusion of voices critical of the model. However, it breaks away from the typical mode of neoliberalism because there exist political spaces for contestation of copper policy, particularly through the re-regulation of labour practices and the passage of royalty law to address Chiles vulnerabilities to external factors affecting copper production. The article contributes to the understanding of continuities and changes in post-neoliberal Latin America by unpacking the elements of natural resource governance in one of the most widely cited successful cases of a mining-based development model in the developing world.

Towards Post-neoliberal Resource Politics? The International Political Economy (IPE) of Oil and Copper in Brazil and Chile

The contemporary commodity boom is unprecedented in two ways. On the one hand, it takes place against the backdrop of the failure of neoliberal policies to achieve stable economic growth in Latin America. On the other hand, Left-of-centre governments, which have now been in power for over a decade, are designing new strategies to manage the increase in export earnings accrued from sustained international demand for commodities. In particular, Brazil and Chile have undergone significant market opening reforms in their resource sectors, yet persistent state ownership and the dominant role of state enterprises in key extractive industries continue to characterise their growth models. This article explains this puzzle through the application of Mahoney and Thelens (2010) historical institutionalist framework on incremental change. In so doing, it offers a process-oriented approach in exploring how resource wealth under certain economic and political conditions provides leverage for states to promote economic development. In sum, the article hopes to contribute to the literature on neoliberal and post-neoliberal political economies in Latin America.The contemporary commodity boom is unprecedented in two ways. On the one hand, it takes place against the backdrop of the failure of neoliberal policies to achieve stable economic growth in Latin America. On the other hand, Left-of-centre governments, which have now been in power for over a decade, are designing new strategies to manage the increase in export earnings accrued from sustained international demand for commodities. In particular, Brazil and Chile have undergone significant market opening reforms in their resource sectors, yet persistent state ownership and the dominant role of state enterprises in key extractive industries continue to characterise their growth models. This article explains this puzzle through the application of Mahoney and Thelens (2010) historical institutionalist framework on incremental change. In so doing, it offers a process-oriented approach in exploring how resource wealth under certain economic and political conditions provides leverage for states to promote economic development. In sum, the article hopes to contribute to the literature on neoliberal and post-neoliberal political economies in Latin America.

Who Owns the Minerals? Repoliticizing Neoliberal Governance in Brazil and Chile

In the debate about post-neoliberal governance in Latin America, a key aspect is how the election of Left governments opened up new discussions about the role of the state in the economy. While Brazil and Chile are difficult to classify as “post neoliberal†states, their particular engagement with the global economy offers new insights about the aspirations and difficulties of a new kind of democratic politics based on a renegotiation between states and markets. The article contributes by exploring how natural resources have been managed in post-dictatorial Brazil and Chile. While legacies of neoliberalism clearly go in the way of greater state control over resources, it is also the case that highly institutionalized models of resource management have been contested for their profound emphasis on growth over equity. Instead, labor unions in mining and petroleum sectors have sought to embed social justice in extractive strategies of growth by rebuilding a stronger role for the state, forging a new “social contract†between the state and labor movement, and opening discussions on resource ownership and economic development. Yet these are changes in the margins precisely because of the embeddedness of neoliberalism in state–society relations. This analysis of repoliticization in Brazil and Chile traces attempts at changing the notions of resource ownership and economic development within the broader context of political demobilization of labor, privatization of resources, and depoliticization of mining management through technification and exclusionary practices.In the debate about post-neoliberal governance in Latin America, a key aspect is how the election of Left governments opened up new discussions about the role of the state in the economy. While Brazil and Chile are difficult to classify as “post neoliberal” states, their particular engagement with the global economy offers new insights about the aspirations and difficulties of a new kind of democratic politics based on a renegotiation between states and markets. The article contributes by exploring how natural resources have been managed in post-dictatorial Brazil and Chile. While legacies of neoliberalism clearly go in the way of greater state control over resources, it is also the case that highly institutionalized models of resource management have been contested for their profound emphasis on growth over equity. Instead, labor unions in mining and petroleum sectors have sought to embed social justice in extractive strategies of growth by rebuilding a stronger role for the state, forging a new “social contract” between the state and labor movement, and opening discussions on resource ownership and economic development. Yet these are changes in the margins precisely because of the embeddedness of neoliberalism in state–society relations. This analysis of repoliticization in Brazil and Chile traces attempts at changing the notions of resource ownership and economic development within the broader context of political demobilization of labor, privatization of resources, and depoliticization of mining management through technification and exclusionary practices.

Citizenship, Democratisation and Resource Politics

It is perhaps surprising that scholars have largely failed to engage with the consequences of democratisation when it comes to understanding resource governance, given the rising tide of citizenship demands in recent times. Much of the political economy literature has paid attention, overwhelmingly, to technocratic forms of governance in resource-rich states, inadvertently downplaying the ways in which social mobilisation and community organisation also shape political outcomes. In this chapter, we seek to go some way towards redressing that omission. We challenge claims around the inevitability of the resource curse in the developing world and examine the ways in which contestation and cooperation in the natural resource sector shape governance and democratisation.

Industrial policy and state-making: Brazil’s attempt at oil-based industrial development

Abstract This paper examines the changing strategies of developmental states using Brazil’s oil-based industrial policy as a case study. We analyse the relationship between the state, Petrobras and industrial elites in the context of Brazil’s renewed emphasis on sector-specific industrial development strategy. Taking stock and re-examining the developmental state model, we suggest that developmental states are inherently political, particularly their bureaucracy and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and that money politics is intricately woven into state-guided high growth regimes. Given the difficulty of privatisation as a solution to SOE (mis)governance, the challenge for Brazil is to mediate extreme political interventions that have eroded Petrobras’ autonomy in the past and to sustain institutional capacity to direct rents towards investment and innovation.

State-owned enterprises and the political economy of state–state relations in the developing world

Abstract The literature on developmental states has built theories of growth-enhancing strategies through a mutually constitutive state–business relationship and institutionalised expertise through a professional bureaucracy. Whilst most evidence bears on the East Asian context, recent empirical work has focussed on state agency and new industrial policies in response to global market integration. Our paper contributes to this debate by exploring multiple patterns of state enterprise reforms that have enabled governments to generate competitive domestic firms. These reforms, then, lead to new theoretical insights as regards the diverse institutional arrangements co-constituting state–state relationships across countries and sectors. Overall, the paper views state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as complex organisations that bear new developmental capacities rather than vessels of rent-seeking interests.

The theory and practice of building developmental states in the Global South

Abstract Reviewing decades of thinking regarding the role of the state in economic development, we argue for the continued relevance of the concept of the ‘developmental state’. With reference to Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, Rwanda and China, we contend that new developmental states are evidence of a move beyond the historical experience of East Asian development. Further, we argue for the applicability of the developmental state framework to key questions of governance, institution building, industrial policy and the extractive industries, as well as to a wide variety of cases of successful and failed state-led development in the early twenty-first century.

Claiming Justice in the Global South

Our book began with the principal objective of exploring the scalar politics of how marginalized social groups demand justice in the Global South. We presented six empirical case studies, which demonstrate how organized and everyday forms of resistance emerge and are played out. These forms of resistance take vastly differing approaches to building coalitions, solidarity networks, and political alliances; but they share the fact that all seek to challenge the hegemony of powerful institutions and investments. The movements we discuss here also utilize, albeit in varying degrees, a rights-based approach to defend their mobilizational practices. In this concluding chapter, we now bring together the main insights from these case studies. We stress six principal themes that have emerged from the cases: (a) the importance of the form of subordination and inequality for understanding mobilization; (b) the triggers that give rise to activism and the factors enabling justice claims to be made; (c) the varied forms of contentious politics and everyday resistance; (d) the scalar politics of local-national-transnational linkages; (e) the value of rights-based claims; and (f) the extent to which justice claims have been successful. Based on a comparative analysis of these cases, this chapter suggests some more general patterns and arguments. We recognize that research on justice-based social mobilization by apparently powerless groups is still limited in number and for this reason, we end the chapter by setting an agenda for future research on struggles for justice in very difficult contexts.

Protest, citizenship and democratic renewal: the student movement in Chile

What is the significance of upsurge of protest and claims-making for how we understand citizenship in relatively new democracies? In Chile, some 20 years after a paradigmatically successful democratisation, student protests for a more equitable education system have re-politicised and transformed debates about what democracy and citizenship should mean. Claims are being staked not only for educational reform but also for a new model of citizenship based on rights and welfare, in contrast to neoliberal models of citizenship as individualisation and consumption. In raising consciousness as regards the costs of neoliberal democracy, the student protests are reviving the countrys radical traditions and past practices of an engaged, political active youth movement.

Analysing Justice Claims in the Global South

The condition of marginalization that characterizes certain social groups is one of the main constraints for their active participation in social and political life as well as for their possibility to claim rights. Yet, across different countries and continents, marginal groups do mobilize. This book is about the politics of claiming rights and the strategies of mobilization by marginalized social groups. It brings together debates on contentious politics, rights framing and claiming, and the everyday politics of resistance to open up new questions about why and how some social groups are able to mobilize and achieve impacts despite the structural constraints in which they operate. It focuses on how politically marginalized groups organize themselves, their goals, and the conditions that make social and political mobilization possible. In brief, it explores agency in very challenging circumstances.