Forgotten Continent

"Michael Reid focuses on the degrees of populism in Latin America. He looks at how populism has led countries to choose the wrong economic policies that focus mostly on immediate redistribution rather than on sustained economic growth. Bolivia is one recent example. “populism has led countries to choose the wrong economic policies that focus mostly on immediate redistribution rather than on sustained economic growth” The book also covers very well the early 20th-century examples of populism, looking at people like Getulio Vargas in Brazil and Juan Peron in Argentina. He also discusses more recent events like the Cuban Revolution and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the sort of new left-wing governments that emerged in Latin America in the late 1990s and early part of this century. Yes, they do. But that is a result of technological developments. So popular leaders now communicate directly with the people through television, not through massive rallies like in the past. But they still mostly rely on their personalities rather than on political institutions. So personal leadership rather than the political parties or institutions are the channels through which representation takes places in Latin America. Yes, but not just Chavez – there are other leaders who also do that in Latin America. In general, Latin America’s political parties tend to be very weak and unstable and that makes it very difficult for democratic institutions to consolidate. People rely almost exclusively on the strength of the individual leader. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . As a result, people think that the stability of the system depends on the leader being in power and not in institutional strength. This is what happened in Colombia very recently. Also, many people were concerned in Brazil about what would happen to the country after [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] left office. Yes, in that the relative weight or share of world output that Latin America counts for has slightly decreased over the past 100 years. In a sense, Latin America is a land of unfulfilled potential. That is because it hasn’t got its act together and the world has moved on. “In a sense, Latin America is a land of unfulfilled potential” And this is partly because Latin American countries continue to rely on exporting commodities rather than on investing in education and technology to move up the ladder and produce more finished products. All countries in Latin America in the last few years have done very well because the price of commodities has increased dramatically. But they are becoming increasingly dependent on the raw materials they export. Last year [in 2010], for example, Peru grew at almost 9% and Argentina grew at 8%, but this is because they produce primary goods that are in high demand. The question is whether they will be able to make the transition to more value-added goods. That also depends on their ability to educate their population better."