Hispanic American Center for Economic Researc...

Book Review:
Las Fragiles Democracias Latinoamericanas
Angel Soto & Paula Schmidt (Editores)
The past is the realm of history; the future, of hope; and the present, an opportunity for reflection and, above all, for action. These premises have prompted here in Santiago, Chile, a project to shape a book, Las Frágiles Democracias Latinoamericanas. This book includes the analyses and observations of fourteen interdisciplinary experts from Latin America, gathered together around one aim: reflecting on Latin America today from the point of view of the problems afflicting the consolidation of democracy and the market.
Within the complex web of global events that determines the course of action followed by nations, their leaders and the miscellaneous multilateral organizations created to channel and intercommunicate issues of interest in the so-called Information Age, Latin America has lost relevance when it comes to quantifying its transcendence and influence as a region and become inserted in the ranking of priorities of the international agenda. This is partly due to the fact that Latin America still has not learned to think in strategic terms and to act in a resolute way on matters that concern the continent and the world. Also, there are signals coming from the different Latin American democratic models, which echo the stubborn option to revive and cling to political and social experiments that may jeopardize the region’s ascent to truly sustainable development. These signals can be detected despite the region having attained its largest economic growth in the years 2003 and 2004 and having reduced its poverty indices from 44% to 40.6%, according to the 2005 issue of Panorama Social de América Latina, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
In 2006, Latin America had more presidential elections than in any other year in its democratic history. Between Evo Morales’s election on 18 December 2005 in Bolivia and Hugo Chávez’s victory at the Venezuelan presidential contest a total eleven Latin American countries elected their presidents, as confirmed by Patricio Navia and Jorge Castañeda, authors of the chapter entitled “El mercado de votos de la democracia en Latin America”. However, although for the vast majority of inhabitants of the region democracy is synonymous with freedom, elections and prosperity, they also know only too well that the governments of the moment fall wide of the mark of expectations. There is still a long way to go before getting rid of such evils as social inequality, corruption, clientelism and the increasing size of the State, all of which challenge the future progress of most of the Latin American countries and generate skepticism and unease about the true consolidation of the democratic structure in Latin America.
The shift to the Left and the more marked presence of populist governments is one of the trends that are manifest in the region. Despite leaderships with a progressive bias nowadays in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela (Cuba is the exception because of Castro’s unaltered hold on power for 48 years) and variations in ideological hue, they have perpetuated the hegemony of the State exacerbating paternalism and the discretionary nature of decisions at government level. There has also been politization and subordination to the Executive Branch of Government of institutions that should continue to be independent. In the most extreme cases, with the support of doubtful electoral processes, there have been constitutional amendments and restrictions to such basic rights as freedom of speech.
According to Cristián Larroulet and Bárbara Horzella, who wrote the chapter “Populismo en Latin America: Paradigma y antítesis en los casos de Venezuela y Chile”, the drifting apart from liberal tenets and the absorption of power by the Executive interfere with the institutional and economic development of the region.
However, the study AmericasBarometer carried out by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) of Vanderbilt University in the United States, the objective of which is to analyze the democratic values associated with performance at the polls of the inhabitants of the region, showed a remarkable result: ideologically the political preferences of Latin Americans lean more to the right, compared with those of the majority of the inhabitants in other parts of the world. Why, then should some of the present presidential incumbents, who are just the opposite of the electors’ ideals remain and thrive in power? Paula Schmidt, in her essay “La cultura es lo que importa: herramienta para el desarrollo”, suggests that this is partly due to the lack of initiative of the Latin American civil elites when it comes to expressing their civico-political culture and demanding increased accountability from those in power. Thus, the elites’ sin by omission falls on the rest of society which, unfortunately, lacks the former’s level of knowledge and is unable to resort to culture as the instrument to act as a real counterweight to the State. However, this is just one more among the many factors that have impeded the strengthening of the Latin American democracies and have enhanced their fragility when they operate within the new parameters imposed by the international agenda. According to economist Sebastián Edwards in “La larga historia de Latin America con un bajo crecimiento económico”, long-term development in Latin America has been alarmingly low in the last 35 years. This is due to the fact that despite the reforms of the 1990s aimed at generating changes in economic incentives and long-lived increases in productivity, its institutions continue to be weak and put innovators off; its economic policies inhibit competition and discourage investment; and, to boot, the region faces recurring macroeconomic crises. Thus, Edwards suggests strengthening three aspects that have contributed to higher growth rates in countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China: increase in productivity (the worst weakness in the Latin America region); improvement in the deployment of labor; and, finally, reinforcing investment in equipment, machinery and infrastructure. This takes us to Brazil, since it has become the key country within the regional context. In “Brasil: Los desafíos del gigante sudamericano”, Rogelio Nuñez examines the challenges conditioning a promising future for the seventh economy in the world. According to him, before Brazil can be acknowledged as a leading player on the international scene, it must overcome its own inner resistance coming from ample social sectors; solve its socio-economic and political problems (Brazil shows the largest economic inequality gap in the region); and exert a consistent leadership that may allow it to rise above some of its neighbors and other countries in the southern hemisphere that do not acknowledge Brazil’s claim to regional leadership.
Regional integration is another problematic point for Latin America. This brings us to two complementary proposals: the analyses of Carlos Malamud, who focuses on the latest South American Energy Summit held in April 2007, and Raúl Sanhueza’s thoughts on “La intelectualidad latinoamericana ante la Unión Europea”. Although both essays provide an acute reflection on two different fields of study, the authors’ conclusions provide a comprehensive breakdown of how Latin America and Europe contrast in their promotion of joint integration projects aimed at strengthening development and maximizing the regional potential. Whereas the EU celebrated in March 2007 the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome, which paved the way for the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), whose consolidation represented the most successful integration in the history of mankind, Malamud believes that the results of the South American Energy Summit did not involve any significant step in the process of creating a regional energy market. On the contrary, soon enough the agenda took on a statist politicized bias and the Summit missed the chance to carry out concrete projects and, above all, to advance in the process of regional integration.
Coordinating Latin America internally can be a rough and complex task, but the chances of unifying the Latin American nations applying the parameters that govern the markets and associations outside the regional boundaries are even more intricate. Although trade with Asia Pacific is already a reality for an important number of Latin American countries, Verónica Neghme in “Vinculaciones América Latina–Asia: Presente y Futuro” and Eneas A. Biglione in “Los Estados Unidos y América Latina en los umbrales del siglo XXI”, refer to the discrepancies in the criteria underlying some of the erratic discourses emerging from some corners of Latin America and the lack of political will or decision to project long term agreements beyond mere economic considerations.
In the opinion of Ángel Soto, the author of the essay “Democracia y Mercado en Latinoamérica: En búsqueda de la libertad”, the parameters that define the political action of a large number of Latin American governments have done nothing but produce tension and reduce the space for freedom, preventing democracy from making solid, steady and stable progress. His thesis is straightforward and direct yet complex to put into practice: according to Soto, Latin America needs a change of mentality.
A conclusive X-ray of the region would not be worthy of the name without an analysis of the radical performance of the most polemic leader in Latin America today: Commander Hugo Chávez Frías, President of Venezuela since 1999.
In his essay “¿Revolución en la Profesión? Hugo Chávez y su impacto en el periodismo latinoamericano”, academician Fernando J. Ruiz takes over the task of analyzing the implications for the world of communications of the polarizing control of a ruler whose authoritarianism has been translated into an actual dictatorship over the media, undermining the quality of public debate and one of the main foundations of democratic progress: freedom of speech.
Finally, the regional outlook is complemented with Jaime García Covarrubias’s article “Las Fuerzas Armadas Latinoamericanas y su adaptación al escenario político, económico y estratégico”, García Covarrubias focuses on one of the relevant actors in the last decades and shows how the armed forces have had to redefine themselves around the reconstruction of democracy, the advent of market economy and the strategic changes occurred after the evolving of (political) polarity.
Through the academic efforts deployed by its authors this book seeks to structure a discourse transcending mere criticism (of which there is plenty). Its purpose is to gather together the background information available today to be used as a tool to build up a more auspicious future. Latin America has been patient and it is time it should get its just deserts. Its destiny will be prosperous as long as the Latin American rulers of the future have the spirit and courage to promote the necessary changes to strengthen the nature of our democracies and lead them away from their current fragility.
It is our intention that this book should move our readers into some kind of intervention on our whimsical Latin American temperament: for too long, a series of social pathologies have become so deeply enrooted that they have produced an alarming immovilism. Loss of confidence in the institutions and the political class, governability crises, corruption, clientelism, “man-of-destiny” leadership styles embodied in some populist leaders, inefficiency of public governance and management and civic culture in short supply have turned underdevelopment in Latin America into a more unrelenting condition than originally envisaged. Thus, it is high time to mend our ways lest we lapse into indifference.
We, the editors, would like to express our gratitude to Atlas Economic Research Foundation (USA) for the support that it has given to the Latin American Studies Program of the Faculty of Communication of the Universidad de los Andes (Santiago, Chile), and, very particularly, to Gabriel Sanchez-Zinny. His generosity has made it possible to take part in congresses, carry out seminars and round-table discussions, invite guest lecturers and organize events with students to encourage reflection on regional issues related to democracy and the market. This support has been invaluable in the struggle for freedom.
We would also like to thank Gabriel Salvia, Director of the Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL) of Buenos Aires, who saw the possibilities of this project and supported it when it was a mere idea, and to the Faculty of Communication of the Universidad de los Andes, that offered the facilities to make the project come to life.
Finally, our thanks to the authors who, from the very beginning, expressed their willingness and enthusiasm to contribute to this book.
You can buy the book at tematika.comhere.
La version en espanol de este book review puede leerse completaaqui.
(C) Hispanic American Center for Economic Research
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