New Developmentalism in Brazil and Argentina: between the academic debate and political practice

This paper aims tocompare the political processes around the construction of New Developmentalism in Brazil, during the Lula government, and Argentina, during the Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner governments. New Developmentalism is a strategy of economic development discussed both in academia and in political practice, which influence each other. We argue that development strategies adopted by these governments hold in common the search for sustainable economic growth, along with the decrease of the vulnerability to external shocks and social inclusion. In order to do so, they promote institutional changes needed to reverse the low growth legacy left by the neoliberal period. We also argue that their development strategies must be analyzed in the light of the opportunities and limits imposed by particular institutional paths, as well as the need to build political consensus around these new agendas.