There are so many good ideas in Latin America, with visible and powerful people behind many of them. Hernando de Soto is not an elected official but as head of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy the ideas he continues to shape the world of development, most recently through the UNDP Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor.
After more than a decade of increasing poverty, rampant inflation and general economic malaise, Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s election as President of Brazil brought on a new era of fiscal discipline and economic responsibility; enabling today’s poverty reduction strategies under current President Luiz Ignacio Lula da SIlva.
Last week, Alejandro Char, mayor of Barranquilla (Colombia), was in Washington D.C. to participate in a panel discussion on efforts to fight corruption at the municipal level. Char has a siginificant private sector background as an urban developer, which gave him a vivid experience of poor governance.
As part of reforming the city contract system, Char’s administration introduced better rules of competition among city contractors and is prioritizing education to help sift out the notorious crony culture of Latin America, hoping to attract investors looking for competitive and clean environments for their capital.
With so many good ideas around him, it’s a wonder that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez continues to make use of such bad ideas:
The Nov. 23 elections are for 23 state governors and hundreds of legislative and mayoral posts, and earlier this year polls showed that opposition candidates could sweep the most important races, including the governorships of greater Caracas and surrounding Miranda state. Mr. Chávez responded by borrowing a tactic from Iran, another close ally. His administration banned more than 300 candidates, including Leopoldo López, an opposition mayor with a national following who was heavily favored in Caracas. Read more from this Washington Post editorial….
Banning opposition candidates bears the childishness of creating a secret handshake club to rule over a favored corner of the playground. It will be interesting to see how the secret handshake club president will fare, now that he’s no longer the coolest kid in the Western hemisphere – to say nothing of the fact that 21st century socialism is deflating proportionate to the price of oil.
Published Date: November 19, 2008