Business Politics and Policymaking in Contemporary Latin America

Abstract

Patterns of business participation of policy making vary widely across Latin America, and especially across some of the larger countries Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile. Business has a portfolio of options for investing in politics that usually includes, in democratic settings, business associations, campaign contributions, personal networks, lobbying, and corruption. In principle, business people should distribute their political investments according to their returns, and these returns depend mostly on the opportunities offered by the political system. Business participation also tends to vary according to the type of policy (depending on scope, uncertainty, and length of implementation). The paper considers a range of empirical examples of business participation in the policy making with an eye to identifying forms of participation that facilitate flexible adjustment, transparency, and intertemporal commitments.