Competitiveness and Convergence: The Open Method of Co-Ordination in Latin America

Abstract

The paper identifies the Lisbon process and the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) as aspects of the politics of competitiveness in the European Union, and describes a parallel project in Latin America. It shows that despite the absence of an institutional framework comparable to that of the European Union, similar processes of policy co-ordination can be identified, in conjunction with the practices (surveillance, benchmarking, peer review and mutual learning) associated with the OMC in the European context. The paper concludes that the Lisbon process and the OMC are best understood if they are seen as local examples of a global politics of competitiveness, rather than as phenomena specific to the European Union.

Keywords: competitiveness, convergence, European Union, Latin America, OMC, policy transfer, ECLAC, CEPAL