Neoliberal globalization and the Argentine Great Depression: deconstructing the discourses of the IMF and private finance

Despite the waning prominence of the vast and diverse literature on globalization, the debate remains unresolved, as globalization’s logics continue to buttress neoliberal economics (Hay & Smith, 2013; Smith, 2005). As Cameron and Palan posited thirteen years ago, “the spread of globalization in practice continues unabated” (2004). Of importance herein is how neoliberal globalization is understood, as a concept and in material terms (Marsh, 2009), as well as how it has spread spatiotemporally (Peck & Tickell, 2012). Contributing to constructivist globalization scholarship, this thesis argues that ideas are central to how “material reality” or “globalization in practice” is shaped and understood (Schmidt, 2013). Henceforth, it interrogates the space for alternatives to globalization’s logics by focusing on the ways ideas shape policy and normative understandings by (respectively) examining the IMF-Argentine consultations (1976-2006), and the discourses of the financial press (1997-2006). The methodology builds on Broome and Seabrooke’s (2007) historical content analysis. The findings show that in both cases ideas entertained came from within globalization’s logics, resulting in policies and a discourse that reflected and reinforced these ideas. Ultimately, this thesis shows the centrality of ideas to “real outcomes,” as well as how they are used to construct understandings thereof