Enter Economy, Exit Politics: Transnational Politics of Economism and Limits to Democracy in Peru

Abstract

The thesis combines insights from political-economy approaches such as transnational historical materialism and world-systems analysis with tools of critical and democratic theories. The focus is on normative claims that are related to the social construction of the "economic sphere". The specific approach of the thesis to studying democratization and limits to democracy is called transnational politics of economism. The thesis analyzes how the "economic sphere" has taken over some issues that were previously considered to be political. To the extent that democracy is assumed to be a valid norm only in political issues, democratic possibilities diminish when the "economic" expands. The thesis connects the changes in the political/economic boundary with an analysis of the boundary between things considered internal to a national community and external to it. The analysis starts from more abstract principles related to politics of economism and continues with a historical overview of economism in Latin America. The tools and explanatory contexts developed in the earlier chapters are then made use of in the analysis of the concrete historical processes in Peru that are under closer study. The processes take place in Peru during the government of Alan García (1985-1990) and Alberto Fujimori (1990-). Empirical sources consist of published and unpublished records, interviews, newspapers and periodicals, constitutions and other codified norms, as well as data bank material.