The impact of 30 years of neoliberal reforms on citizen perception of the relation between democracy and human welfare in Costa Rica

Abstract

This article sets out the findings of research undertaken in the framework of the invitation from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales - CLACSO) on “Thirty Years of Democracy in Latin America,” which aimed to examine the current perception of Costa Ricans regarding the notion of democracy and human welfare, considering the effects of introducing the neoliberal model thirty years ago. This required the analysis of two dimensions: first, what is notion of democracy Costa Ricans currently have and, secondly, whether this notion of democracy contemplates specific demands in terms of human development and general welfare, that is, what do Costa Ricans believe should be contained in a democracy to be considered legitimate by the population. Six focus groups were organized for this purpose, where the participants answered various questions related to the topic. Two broad conclusions may be drawn from the information collected: first, there is a relation between the way democracy is defined and the capacity to observe the impacts of the neoliberal reforms on human welfare; secondly, most of the groups consulted exhibited great difficulties in identifying the neoliberal reforms and how they are responsible for impacting human welfare.