The lithium fix: The contradictions of green developmentalism in the Andes

Because the salt flats of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia account for 55% of the world's lithium reserves, and recent discoveries in Peru have identified additional important lithium deposits, these countries are implementing new policies to capitalize on the global demand for lithium as a critical mineral to advance decarbonization. Drawing on a comparative and multi-scalar analysis of how state, corporate, and local actors shape the political economy of lithium as a matter of state-led development and socio-political legitimacy, this article formulates the framework of the “lithium fix” to examine lithium mining's promises to achieve sustainability and industrialization, resembling the Asian-inspired model of ‘green developmentalism’. The article found that despite varying advances in implementing developmental and socio-environmental institutions among those countries (Chile being an outstanding case), in all experiences, criticisms from traditional economic and political sectors about state control of the industry, and local social and environmental concerns, limited governmental action. These socio-political confrontations underscore the unstable nature of the “lithium fix” and suggest the necessity of unpacking this category to distinguish its developmental and sustainability dimensions. By addressing both developmentalism and socio-environmental legitimacy, it is possible to tackle the deep causes of social tensions that reproduce precarious institutional settlements.