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I am a professor at the School of Political Science, Diego Portales University in Santiago, Chile (www.udp.cl).
I am also associate researcher at the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (www.coes.cl) and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (www.mpifg.de/en).
My work deals with the the political economy of development, particularly the role of business and institutions. I have done research on several topics including monetary policy, industrial policy, skills formation, environmental policy and clean energy. I focus mostly on Latin America, but have also done comparative work with other regions like Eastern Europe.
I co-edit (with Juan Bogliaccini and Sara Niedzwiecki) Palgrave's Latin American Political Economy book series.
Contact: aldo.madariaga@mail.udp.cl
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Neoliberal Resilience. Lessons in Democracy and Development from Latin America and Eastern Europe Princeton University Press, 2020
Winner of the Honorable Mention for Best Book 2021
IPE section, International Studies Association (ISA)
Winner of the Honorable Mention "Alice Amsden" book award 2021
Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics (SASE)
Since the 1980s, neoliberalism has withstood repeated economic shocks and financial crises to become the hegemonic economic policy worldwide. Why has neoliberalism remained so resilient? What is the relationship between this resiliency and the backsliding of Western democracy? Can democracy survive an increasingly authoritarian neoliberal capitalism? Neoliberal Resilience answers these questions by bringing the developing world’s recent history to the forefront of our thinking about democratic capitalism’s future.
Looking at four decades of change in four countries once considered to be leading examples of effective neoliberal policy in Latin America and Eastern Europe—Argentina, Chile, Estonia, and Poland—I examine the domestic actors and institutions responsible for defending neoliberalism. Delving into neoliberalism’s political power, Neoliberal Resilience demonstrates that it is strongest in countries where traditional democratic principles have been slowly and purposefully weakened. He identifies three mechanisms through which coalitions of political, institutional, and financial forces have propagated neoliberalism’s success: the privatization of state companies to create a supporting business class, the use of political institutions to block the representation of alternatives in congress, and the constitutionalization of key economic policies to shield them from partisan influence.
A comparative exploration of political economics at the peripheries of global capitalism, Neoliberal Resilience investigates the tensions between neoliberalism’s longevity and democracy’s gradual decline.
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"A significant contribution to the field of comparative political economy. This is a fascinating read."—Eduardo Silva, author of Challenging Neoliberalism in Latin America
"a very important addition to the lively debate on the political economy of neoliberalism. This book deserves to be read widely."—Jerome Roos, author of Why Not Default?: The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt
"deeply insightful, amazingly detailed, theoretically innovative, meticulously researched (...). It is a must-read for everyone interested in the past, present, and future of neoliberalism" —Gabor Scheiring, Review of Democracy
"This sophisticated book is indispensable for students of politics and for those wishing neoliberal countries a different political future."—Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
"With a spot-on focus on the American and European periphery, laboratories of most radical forms of neoliberalism, this masterfully argued work will inform debates in the years to come."—Dorothee Bohle, European University Institute
"Neoliberal Resilience is the first significant work devoted to the relationship between the mechanisms that made neoliberalism sustainable and viable on the one hand and that led to the erosion of democracy on the other." Leokadia Oreziak, ILR Review
INDEXED ARTICLES
Madariaga, A., A. Maillet and J. Rozas (2021). Multilevel business power in environmental politics: the avocado boom and water scarcity in Chile. Environmental Politics. Advance online access}. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2021.1892981
Bogliaccini, J. and A. Madariaga (2020). “Varieties of Skills Profiles in Latin America: a reassessment of the hierarchical model of capitalism”, Journal of Latin American Studies. 52(3), 601-631. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X20000322
Madariaga, A. and M. Allain (2020). “Contingent Coalitions in Environmental Policymaking: How Civil Society Organizations Influenced the Chilean Renewable Energy Boom”, Policy Studies Journal, 48(3): 672–699. DOI: 10.1111/psj.12298
Madariaga, A. and C. Rovira Kaltwasser (2020). “Right-wing Moderation, Left-wing Inertia and Cartelisation in Post-Transition Chile”, Journal of Latin American Studies. 52(2): 343–371. DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X19000932
Allain, M. and A. Madariaga (2020). “Understanding Policy Change Through Bricolage: The case of Chile’s Renewable Energy Policy”, Governance. 33(3): 675–692. DOI: 10.1111/gove.12453
Madariaga, A. (2020). “The three pillars of neoliberalism: Chile's economic policy trajectory in comparative perspective”. Contemporary Politics, 26(3): 308–329. DOI:10.1080/13569775.2020.1735021
Madariaga, A. (2019). “The Politics of Neoliberalism (in Europe's Periphery)” Comparative European Politics 17(5), 797-811. DOI: 10.1057/s41295-018-0150-1
Madariaga, A. (2019). “From Green Laggard to Regional Leader: The Development of Environmental Policy in Chile", Bulletin of Latin American Research, 38(4): 453–470. DOI: 10.1111/blar.12841
Madariaga, A. (2019). "El resurgimiento de la economía política en la ciencia política actual", Revista de Economía Institucional, 21(41): 21–50. DOI: 10.18601/01245996.v21n41.02
Bril-Mascarenhas, T. and A. Madariaga (2019). “Business power and the minimal state: the defeat of industrial policy in Chile”, The Journal of Development Studies, 55(6): 1047-1066. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2018.1423791
Madariaga, A. (2018). “Variedades de capitalismo y sus contribuciones al estudio del desarrollo en América Latina” Política y Gobierno, 25(2): 441-468. DOI: link
Madariaga, A. (2017). "Mechanisms of neoliberal resilience: comparing exchange rates and industrial policy in Chile and Estonia", Socio-Economic Review, 15 (3): 637-660. DOI: 10.1093/ser/mww015
BOOKS
Madariaga, A. (2020). Neoliberal Resilience. Lessons in Democracy and Development from Latin America and Eastern Europe, Princeton University Press.
González, F. and A. Madariaga (Eds.) (2018). La constitución social, política y moral de la economía chilena, Santiago: RIL Editores/ Universidad Central.
Cecchini, Simone and A. Madariaga (2012). Programas de transferencias condicionadas: balance de la experiencia reciente en América Latina y el Caribe, Santiago, Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) – Naciones Unidas.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Bogliaccini, J. and A. Madariaga (2018). "Educación para el trabajo y formación de competencias: ¿potenciando la equidad social y el desarrollo?" In: Políticas Públicas para la equidad social (Pablo Rivera-Vargas, Judith Muñoz-Saavedra, Rommy Morales-Olivares y Stefanie Butendieck-Hijerra, eds.), Santiago de Chile: Colección Políticas Públicas, Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Pp. 287-298.
González, Felipe and A. Madariaga (2018). “Introducción. Des-economizar los mercados, socializar los estudios de la economía”. In: La constitución social, política y moral de la economía chilena (González, F, y Madariaga, A. eds.), Santiago: RIL Editores/ Universidad Central. Pp. 9-39.
Madariaga, A. and E. Gladina (2018). “El cambio de paradigma en la política energética chilena”. In: La constitución social, política y moral de la economía chilena, (González, F, y Madariaga, A. eds.), Santiago: RIL Editores/ Universidad Central. Pp. 385-408.
OTHER ARTICLES
Madariaga, A. (2019). "La Continuidad del Neoliberalismo en Chile: ideas, instituciones e intereses" Revista de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre as Américas 13(2): 81–113.
Madariaga, A. and S. Palestini (2019). “La influencia global de Dependencia y Desarrollo en América Latina” Cuadernos de Teoría Social, 5(9), 74–89.
González, Felipe and Madariaga, A. (2019). “Economic sociology, political economy and Latin American capitalism. Quo vadis?”, Economic Sociology – The European Electronic Newsletter 20 (3): 1-5.
González, Felipe and A. Madariaga (2019). “Markets, market dynamics and market creation in Latin America”, Economic Sociology – The European Electronic Newsletter 20 (2): 1-5.
González, Felipe and A. Madariaga (2018). “Is there a Latin American economic sociology?”, Economic Sociology – The European Electronic Newsletter 20 (1): 1-10.
Eberhard, P., Moraga, G., Nun, E. and Madariaga, A. (2017). "The On-the-job training decision in Latin America", Working Paper IDB-WP-772, Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.
Madariaga, A. (2017). "Die Erstaunliche Resilienz des Neoliberalismus. Kapitalismus, Demokratie und Entwicklung in Lateinamerika und Osteuropa" MPIfG Jahrbuch 2017-2018, Köln: Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Pp. 75-80.
Madariaga, A. (2013). “Continuity and Change in Neoliberal ‘Success Stories’: Developmental Regimes in Chile and Estonia” MPIfG Discussion Paper 13/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Colonia.
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