Latin American Populism
Read the excellent article on Latin American populism that appeared in The Economist at VCrisis.
The article distinguishes between the left and populism, traces the roots of the phenomena and sees the development of populism in Latin America. It ends with the following paragraph:
Bolivia, Bolivien, Evo, Evo Morales, Peru, Peru Elections, Ollanta Humala,
Venezuela, Chavez, Hugo Chavez
The article distinguishes between the left and populism, traces the roots of the phenomena and sees the development of populism in Latin America. It ends with the following paragraph:
Many Latin Americans believe that their countries are rich, whereas in truth they are not. Populists blame poverty on corruption, on a grasping oligarchy or, nowadays, on multinational oil or mining companies. That often plays well at the ballot box. But it is a misdiagnosis. Countries develop through a mixture of the right policies and the right institutions. Whatever their past achievements, the populists are leading Latin America down a blind alley.A spot-on analysis. A must-read.
Bolivia, Bolivien, Evo, Evo Morales, Peru, Peru Elections, Ollanta Humala,
Venezuela, Chavez, Hugo Chavez
posted by Alvaro Ruiz-Navajas at 4/14/2006
3 Comments:
As usual, I find The Economist's analysis well supported by facts but marred by a shallow understanding of the subject. In this case, Latin America.
It's been a long time since I've picked up a copy of The Economist. The main reason being the little depth of their articles. They are very journalistic. It seems to me a reporter gets a topic and a few days to finish the article. In that sense, no time to do a really deep analysis. That's how they come up with a good but "shallow" article.
But, that's just my impression.
Alvaro, El Nuevo Herald, has a short but concise story on Mario Vargas Llosa's opinion of populism and Chavez.
http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/14337321.htm
Well I must admit that amongst the many things I've read over the years about LatAm in anglophone sources, the populism article of the Economist is spot on. There's no such thing as a turn to the left in LatAm and those who argue that there's would do well spending a bit of time in Europe.
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