Right-Wing Political Cycles and Inequality in Paraguay: An Analysis of Tax Policies

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between cycles of right-wing governments, sustained under the hegemony of the ANR–Colorado Party, and the persistence of inequality in Paraguay through an analysis of their tax policies. Based on the periodization proposed by López Segrera (2016), three distinct phases are identified: the Stronist dictatorship (1954–1989), associated with the onset of agricultural modernization; the neoliberal cycle (1989–2003), linked to the implementation of the Washington Consensus and the consolidation of a regressive tax structure; and the “new” right (2013–2018), which preserved a fiscal regime favorable to agribusiness through renewed forms of legitimation and political participation. From the perspective of the medium-term variable (Braudel, 1970), the study identifies structural patterns that sustain and reproduce a regressive tax architecture, with the stance adopted by these right-wing forces toward inequality constituting a historically persistent feature (Ansaldi, 2017). The central hypothesis argues that, despite contextual transformations, right-wing governments have consistently reproduced a regressive tax system that reinforces a structurally exclusionary economic model.