Party].” Writing a separate essay on
Chile, Patricio Navia calls attention
to how the center-left coalition of
political parties—known as the
Concertación—has created a viable social
agenda and macroeconomic stability. Peru, Mexico and Venezuela are
then analyzed as case studies of the
inherent tensions between whether
the Left should and can seek power
through democratic, institutional
means or through the leadership of
a single charismatic leader.
The Left in Peru has failed to form
a truly representative party, perhaps
due to the lack of a charismatic leader.
The opposite is true in Venezuela,
suggests Raúl A. Sánchez Urribarri, a
University of South Carolina doctoral
candidate, who analyzes how President Hugo Chávez has kidnapped
the Left and used populist measures
to bring forward what “might very
well represent the kiss of death to…
those who yearn for social changes
in a functioning democracy.”
The last 15 years could be seen as
a final reckoning of the hemispheric
drama that opened with the Cuban
revolution. For the hemisphere’s
new leftist governments, the years
to come will not be without challenges. Education, pension funds,
anti-monopoly laws, and regional
integration all represent challenges.
The region is also likely to bear witness to neighborly spats (energy and
debt payments) as it has some surprising twists like anti-abortion laws
in Nicaragua and Uruguay and the
radically anti-clerical Cuban leadership’s presence at the canonization
of the island’s first Catholic Saint. To
be ready for this challenging future,
it is critical to understand both the
past and the present-day situation.
Leftovers: Tales of the Latin American
Left, a witty and irreverent compilation, lends a helpful hand.
FIRST LOOK
The best new and recent books on policy, economics
and business in the hemisphere.
FRESH LOOK
América Latina y el Caribe: La propiedad intelectual después
de los tratados de libre comercio
By Álvaro Díaz
CEPAL, 2008, softcover, 248 pages
Centroamérica y México: políticas de competencia a
principios del siglo XXI
Coordinated by Eugenio Rivera and Claudia Schatan
CEPAL, 2008, softcover, 304 pages
Comprender la inmigración
By Guillermo de la Dehesa
Alianza Editorial, 2008, softcover, 416 pages
Deu no New York Times: O Brasil segundo a ótica de um
repórter do jornal mais influente do mundo
By Larry Rohter
Objetiva, 2008, softcover, 416 pages
El poder y el delirio
By Enrique Krauze
Tusquets Editores, 2008, softcover, 373 pages
Growing Pains: Binding Constraints to Productive
Investment in Latin America
By Manuel Agosin, Eduardo Fernández-Arias and Fidel Jaramillo
Inter-American Development Bank and Harvard University Press,
2009, softcover, forthcoming
Negotiating Democracy in Brazil: The Politics of Exclusion
By Bernd Reiter
First Forum Press, 2008, hardcover, 171 pages
Participatory Institutions in Democratic Brazil
By Leonardo Avritzer
Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2009, hardcover, 192 pages
Pablo Díaz is editor of cubaencuen-tro.com and editorial board member
for the magazine Encuentro de la
Cultura Cubana.
Who Decides the Budget? A Political Economy Analysis of
the Budget Process in Latin America
Edited by Carlos G. Scartascini and Ernesto Stein
Inter-American Development Bank and Harvard University Press,
2009, softcover, forthcoming
