Structural Adjustment Programmes, Structural Reforms, and Neoliberalism: The Case of the Liberalisation of the Mexican Oil Industry

Abstract

This research explores the nature and scope of neoliberal structural adjustment programmes with respect to the 2013 structural reforms in Mexico’s oil industry. The research draws upon the perceptions of Mexican oil industry stakeholders and their experience and understanding of the past and current nature of the sector. It discusses the influence and scope of the neoliberal school on the oil industry structural reforms and the resulting foreign direct investment. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to gather data from oil industry stakeholders in both Mexico and the United States, including high-level managers, workers, potential investors, and people with expertise in the oil industry. The findings of this research show that the structural reforms in Mexico are not following a neoliberal agenda – they are targeting development rather than privatisation and market liberalisation. These findings are more in line with the structuralist approach of Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) than with Mont Pèlerin/Austrian neoliberal thought. Further, perceptions of “neoliberal structural reforms” in Mexico are based more on media portrayals and political campaigns than on reality. Organisations that were considered ideological rivals in the past, such as the International Monetary Fund and CEPAL, are in fact collaborating with each other. This research makes a significant contribution to the international business and political economy disciplines by using the case of the Mexican oil industry structural reforms to show that CEPAL’s neostructuralism and its heterodox approach has prevailed over neoliberal orthodoxy in the country, and that Latin American economies are following growth models tailored to their own political, economic, social, and historical settings.