However, in the pursuit of such objectives, the LOC parties avoided the ill-conceived approach to budget deficits and inflation typical of the populist regimes of the 1980s. At the same time, the LOC economic model’s concern for poverty and inequality, recognition of market failures, and attachment of importance to strengthening of state institutions are in stark contrast with the neo-liberal emphasis on shrinking the state and the self-sustained role of markets (Panizza, 2005). In many cases deficits were turned into surpluses.