Na sombra de 1989: economia política internacional depois do fim da história

• Main Author: João Rodrigues
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2018-11-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: capitalism; European Union; neoliberalism; political economy; populism; socialism
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/7834

This article argues that nearly three decades after 1989, a year marking the onset of wide-reaching global transformations, we still live under the shadow of one of its main consequences in terms of political economy: the fatal crisis of socialism implied that capitalism, whose neoliberal turn intensified, ceased to be subject to systemic checks and balances to its action. This diagnosis will be explored through the detailed analysis of two formulas and a document that appeared, perhaps not by chance, in 1989: the Washington Consensus, the end of history and the so-called Delors Report about the European Monetary Union. Seen together, they reflect some of the central planks of an international political economy of a neoliberal bent, still to be surpassed institutionally, due to the lack of fear among the power elites, among other factors. The article concludes by making a populist proposal to begin the process of reversing this perverse state of affairs.