The Political Economy of Progressive Uruguay, 2005–2016

• Date: 01 January 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18806587
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 224, Vol. 46 No. 1, January 2019, 122–136

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18806587

© 2018 Latin American Perspectives

122

The Political Economy of Progressive Uruguay,

2005–2016

by

Gabriel Oyhantçabal

Translated by

Margot Olavarria

The 2005 election of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) to the national government

initiated a new stage in Uruguay’s recent history characterized by capital accumulation,

increase of income for the working class, and the development of social policies. An analy-

sis of the particularities of this historical period challenges official and liberal positions

that attribute them exclusively to the capacities of government authorities. Progressiveness

expresses a particular way of valorizing capital emerging from the crisis of neoliberalism

that is characterized by the linking of capital accumulation with wage increases and social

policies made possible by external conditions including the increase of ground rent and

flows of foreign capital.

La llegada del Frente Amplio al gobierno nacional en 2005 inició una nueva etapa en

la historia reciente del Uruguay en el marco del cual se producirá un período virtuoso de

acumulación de capital, mejora de los ingresos de la clase trabajadora y despliegue de

políticas sociales. Discutiendo con las posturas oficialistas y liberales que atribuyen los

resultados exclusivamente a las capacidades/incapacidades de los gobernantes, este artí-

culo analiza las particularidades de este período histórico con foco en su economía política.

Se propone que el progresismo expresa una forma particular de valorizar capital que nace

de la crisis del neoliberalismo, y cuyo rasgo distintivo es que articula acumulación de

capital con incremento salarial y políticas sociales gracias a condiciones externas ligadas

al incremento de la renta de la tierra y al flujo de capital extranjero.

Keywords: Progressiveness, Uruguay, Frente Amplio, Ground rent, Capital accumulation

In 2005, in the context of the wave of so-called progressive governments in

Latin America, a novel stage in recent Uruguayan history began. Two key

aspects characterize this period. First, for the first time the Frente Amplio (Broad

Front), a political force forged at the peak of the social struggles of the 1960s and

early 1970s that united practically all of the Marxist left and the reforming sec-

tors of the traditional parties (Colorado and Nacional), was elected to the presi-

dency. This multiclass political coalition, with strong working-class leadership,

Gabriel Oyhantçabal teaches agronomy at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo,

Uruguay, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American studies at the Universidad Nacional

Autónoma de México. An earlier and briefer Spanish-language version of this article was pub-

lished as “Economía política del Uruguay progresista (2005–2015),” in Mariano Féliz and María

Orlanda Pinassi (eds.), La farsa neodesarrollista y las alternativas populares en América Latina y el Caribe

(Buenos Aires: Herramienta, 2017). Margot Olavarria is a translator living in New York City.

806587LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X18806587Oyhantçabal / Political Economy Of Progressive UruguayLatin American Perspectives

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