I am, and have been for many years now, a welcome recipient of Walden Bello's wisdom. I feel, however, that we are being a bit less nuanced than we ought to be in this discussion. in fact, i feel we are being ahistorical. there was a time in many countries when a bloated public sector, an inefficient one, when constraints on private initiative, when
a disconnect between preparing a supply of labour for its inefficient demand were real issues. Williamson's 1989 arguments, known thereafter as the "Washington Consensus", were an assessment of what was going wrong in Latin America - at the time, and in that context. i feel it was right-headed. One cannot, in an article that improbably twins Thatcher and Pinochet, offer numbers without a counter-factual argument. I feel that the "consensus" (and Thatcher, by the way, was on her way out, Reagan having already exited) was not doctrine, but became doctrinaire through its misuse in political channels. the core of the consensus, however, was economic wisdom, time- and context-specifiic, and the effort, I think, was for the common good.
Duncan Campbell
Director, Labour Organizationwriting in his own capacity and not necessarily reflecting the views of the ILO
a disconnect between preparing a supply of labour for its inefficient demand were real issues. Williamson's 1989 arguments, known thereafter as the "Washington Consensus", were an assessment of what was going wrong in Latin America - at the time, and in that context. i feel it was right-headed. One cannot, in an article that improbably twins Thatcher and Pinochet, offer numbers without a counter-factual argument. I feel that the "consensus" (and Thatcher, by the way, was on her way out, Reagan having already exited) was not doctrine, but became doctrinaire through its misuse in political channels. the core of the consensus, however, was economic wisdom, time- and context-specifiic, and the effort, I think, was for the common good.
Duncan Campbell
Director, Labour Organizationwriting in his own capacity and not necessarily reflecting the views of the ILO
