The Myth of the Beijing Consensus

Figures & data

Table 1. The Washington Consensus (1989)

Point	Later revised or qualified
1. Fiscal discipline
2. Reordering public expenditure priorities away from non-merit subsidies and toward public goods (e.g. health and education)
3. Tax reform that combines broad tax base with moderate marginal rates	*
4. Liberalized interest rates	*
5. A competitive exchange rate	*
6. Trade liberalization	*
7. Liberalization of inward foreign direct investment
8. Privatization	*
9. Deregulation to ease barriers of firms for entry and exit of sectors	*
10. Strong protection of property rights	*
Sources: John Williamson, ‘What Washington means by policy reform’, in John Williamson, ed., Latin American Adjustment: How Much Has Happened? (Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 1990); John Williamson, ‘A short history of the Washington Consensus’, in Narcis Serra and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds, The Washington Consensus Reconsidered: Towards a New Global Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 14–30; John Williamson, ‘Our agenda and the Washington Consensus’, in Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski and John Williamson, eds, After the Washington Consensus: Restarting Growth and Reform in Latin America (Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 2003); and John Williamson, ‘After the Washington Consensus: Latin American growth and sustainable development’, Keynote speech at the Seminar on Latin American Financing and the Role of Development Banks, IDB, BDMG, and ALIDE, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 30–31 March 2006.

Table 2. The Beijing Consensus

1.	Innovation-based development
2.	Economic success measured not by per capita GDP growth but by its sustainability and level of equality
3.	Self-determination for China and for other countries vis-à-vis the United States:
	• Opposition to the Washington Consensus
	• Globalization on their own terms
	• Chinese influence by example, not weaponry
	• Develop asymmetric capabilities to balance against the United States
Source: Joshua Cooper Ramo, The Beijing Consensus: Notes on the New Physics of Chinese Power (London: Foreign Policy Centre, 2004).