Exclusive, What is at stake in Ecuador’s election?

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What is at stake in Ecuador’s election?

by Marc Becker

The last year has been demoralizing for the Latin American left.

In November 2015, Mauricio Macri won election as president of Argentina on an openly neoliberal economic platform, ending twelve years of leftist rule in Argentina. Several weeks later, voters flipped control of Venezuela’s national assembly to a strident anti-Chávez but politically incoherent opposition that demanded the recall of president Nicolás Maduro. In the midst of a trumped up sex scandal, in February 2016 Bolivia’s first Indigenous president Evo Morales lost a referendum that would have allowed him to run for re-election in 2019. In Brazil, after two terms under the popular president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff faced a politically motivated impeachment from a conservative legislature that removed her from office in August 2016 on questionable charges. Her vice president Michel Temer moved quickly to undo thirteen years of progressive Workers Party (PT) policies. After a successful first time in office, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet faced very low poll numbers during her second term. Former rightwing president Sebastián Piñera appeared positioned to return to office in 2018.

Abstract, A Case of Diversified Dependency: Macrostructural Change and Policy Alternatives in Ecuador by Jonas Gamso

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A Case of Diversified Dependency: Macrostructural Change and Policy Alternatives in Ecuador 
by Jonas Gamso

After decades of being primarily dependent upon the United States, Ecuador appears to be experiencing a diversification of dependency as alternative sources for trade and investment have emerged to challenge Washington. This diversification is in turn increasing Ecuador’s political autonomy, as demonstrated by the Correa administration’s policy shift away from the Washington Consensus. Diversified dependency is framing Ecuador’s policy options and may frame those of other peripheral states in the context of an increasingly multipolar global economy. Peripheral states will find themselves under pressure from multiple, often competing core states to enact certain policies; at the same time, diversification should provide them leverage in bilateral relations with each of the core states upon which they depend.

Abstract, A Case of Diversified Dependency: Macrostructural Change and Policy Alternatives in Ecuador by Jonas Gamso

:::::: Abstract ::::::

A Case of Diversified Dependency: Macrostructural Change and Policy Alternatives in Ecuador 
by Jonas Gamso

After decades of being primarily dependent upon the United States, Ecuador appears to be experiencing a diversification of dependency as alternative sources for trade and investment have emerged to challenge Washington. This diversification is in turn increasing Ecuador’s political autonomy, as demonstrated by the Correa administration’s policy shift away from the Washington Consensus. Diversified dependency is framing Ecuador’s policy options and may frame those of other peripheral states in the context of an increasingly multipolar global economy. Peripheral states will find themselves under pressure from multiple, often competing core states to enact certain policies; at the same time, diversification should provide them leverage in bilateral relations with each of the core states upon which they depend.