ABSTRACT
In support of the argument in the previous chapter, Chapter 4 looks more closely at the national and international economic context. The major changes in the economy are discussed in relation to the inter-survey periods and the four major development phases over the 40 years of the study. The transformation of the economy is traced from the oil boom years through two period of neoliberalism (structural adjustment between 1982 and 1995 and the end-of-millennium financial crash) to the anti-globalisation of President Rafael Correa. The nature of neoliberalism in Ecuador is discussed, before going on to analyse the politics of debt, rates of growth, the role of oil, levels of government consumption, manufacturing performance and the patterns of exports and imports. It is argued that the neoliberal experiment resulted in the failure of the banking system, the dollarisation of the economy and serious pressure on the businesses and the lives of artisans – the very ‘entrepreneurs’ who should have prospered under the experiment. The main victims of the crisis of neoliberalism were small family businesses whose savings were in sucres and who saw demand sucked out of the economy. On the other hand, the main beneficiaries were a small number of wealthy families who could move their wealth offshore.
