This paper underscores the need to overcome the fundamental problems of the "Washington Consensus" that have not been entirely solved in its recent reformulations calling for a "second generation of reforms." Such problems are its narrow view of macroeconomic stability; its disregard for the role that policy interventions in the productive sector can play in inducing investment and accelerating growth; its tendency to subordinate social policies to economic policies; and, finally, its tendency to forget that it is citizens who should choose what economic and social institutions they prefer. The examination of the frustrating experience of Latin America under structural reforms provides the empirical backdrop for the analysis.
