The Kirchner Administration’s Soybean Export Tax Policy in Argentina as an Analytical Tool for Determining Political and Economic Shifts in Latin America since the Neoliberal Era

PATRICK JOSEPH WOODYARD: The Kirchner Administration’s Soybean Export Tax Policy in Argentina as an Analytical Tool for Determining Political and Economic Shifts in Latin America since the Neoliberal Era (Under the direction ofDr. Jeffrey Jackson) This study contributes to current scholarship on the political responses to neoliberalism and the current state ofthe political economy ofLatin America. By exploring the complexities involved in politically aligning leaders in the region, this study suggests a need for scholarship that focuses on the policies leaders employ rather than the broad characteristics ofpoliticians. By concentrating on the soybean export tax policy in Argentina, this study reveals the advantages offocusing on individual policies. The findings ofthis study contribute to the idea that a need for new terminology for classifying leaders other than the classic “left/right” qualifiers is in existence. As such terms have become outdated in their twentieth century form due to an increasingly integrated world economy and lessons learned from the social effects ofthe neoliberal era, new ways of categorizing leaders and their policies are necessary in order to embrace the mix ofideology currently evident in Latin America’s political economy. Finally, this study shows a further advantage of concentrating on individual policies as a focus on the soybean export tax reveals concrete evidence contributing to the currently available scholarship regarding the existence ofpopulism within the region