HCIAS Wednesday Colloquium – Perspectives on Ibero America Authoritarian Capitalism in Latin America: Causes and Consequences

The public debate about economic policy and development models in Latin America is often centered around the opposites of socialism versus free market capitalism. The former is associated with left-wing governments, while the latter is the hallmark of the right wing. Defenders of both often argue to be protagonists of democracy but they espouse different definitions of it. However, in Latin America as in other parts of the world we see an economic system emerging in right-wing as well as left-wing led countries that is neither socialist, nor is it based on the free market. Production for profit is dominant, and it has authoritarian features. However, it also falls outside of the category of “state capitalism” – used about for example China – as the main coordinators are specific elite-groups attached to the government rather than state institutions. This is what could be called “authoritarian capitalism”. This lecture will unpack the idea of authoritarian capitalism and apply it to analyze the recent evolution in two countries: Venezuela and El Salvador.