ABSTRACT
The study of underdevelopment and the pursuit of economic development dominated the agenda of policymakers in mid-twentieth-century Latin America. Rallied around the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL in Spanish and Portuguese), economists emphasized industrial protection and promotion, the expansion of the internal market, foreign aid and international cooperation, and agrarian and fiscal reform. Like in neighboring countries, the Colombian state implemented import-substitution industrialization policies, yet it was not developmentalist. This chapter traces the alternative path that Colombia's economists took in their ascent to state power during the presidency of Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970). It explains why they came to believe that the management of the exchange rate was the necessary foundation for growth and redistribution—a goal that Latin Americans only came to embrace during the neoliberal turn at the end of the century—and how their overriding commitment to macroeconomic stability was defined by a combination of personal relations and technical analyses. The chapter argues that due to these characteristics, the Colombian case helps us understand that the rupture between developmentalism and neoliberalism, which has defined economic debates throughout Latin America for decades, is not as sharp, while it challenges the notion of an ideologically driven technocratic elite.
