La reforma institucional en el Ecuador. Una perspectiva poco ortodoxa

Abstract

This paper presents an interpretation of the results concerning the creation and consolidation of the institutional framework that supported the process of structural reforms in Latin America and Ecuador. The main argument is that the adoption of Washington Consensus” principles, particularly those related to structural reforms, lacked the necessary institutional support and in many cases weakened the existing institutions by ignoring the importance of an alternative institutional framework, which is essential to strengthen those reforms and assure their sustainability. A coherent process of structural reforms needs social agreements that create and consolidate formal institutions in a long term view, in order to assure their continuity in time. The process of modemization should not be conceived as the retirement of the State from economic activities Instead, it must identify the factors and conditions of' its failures, because the market can do some things better than the State, but it fails miserably in others.