1993. With José María Maravall and Adam Przeworski. The neoliberal economic reforms enacted by Latin Americas and Eastern Europes new democracies have proven inefficient and at times even ineffective. This derives both from a lack of political support and from the dogmatic orthodoxy adopted. This paper corresponds to the Introduction to the book Economic Reforms in New Democracies, 1993. Portuguese version available. (Paper in book by Bresser-Pereira, Maravall Przeworski).