Development_and_Change_in_the_Third_World

Examine the significance of the recent ‘shift to the left’ in Latin America for social and economic development in the region. When investigating the economic and social development and policies of Latin America, one vital element must be take into consideration is the recent popularity of left-of-centre governments in the region. There are questions that needed to be considered, like what are the economic policies that they implement' How do they differ from the traditional ones implemented by their previous opponents' Will, as their dedicated advocates declare, governments of this “New Left” implement economic schemes, fundamentally departing from so-called neo-liberal ones that will help Latin America to succeed in its obscure mission for high and sustained economic growth' Or, on the opposite, are their fierce critics correct in arguing that such alternative economic programs are restored versions of populist experiments of the past and, therefore, sooner or later, will provoke sensitive inflation, bloated economic deficits, and eventually push the region into financial crisis and recession' (Arnsen & Peralez 2007) All these need to be taken into account when examining the significance of the recent ‘shift to the left’ in Latin America for social and economic development in the region. One of the key factors why the region moved to the left in political preferences is because the poor results of the economic reforms, which are inspired by the Washington Consensus who implemented by the previous governments. By adopting policies of cantered on trade and financial liberalization, deregulation, and downsizing of its public sector, Latin American economies were not capable to entering a path of high and sustained expansion. Inflation has come down, but economic activity has been slow. In addition, in the last ten years, the region has suffered sharp economic crises; among the most obvious ones were the Mexican tequila crisis (Inter-American Development Bank, 2004) and the collapse in Argentina (Cohen, 2003). For Latin America economic growth gives the obvious answers to the problems of poverty and underdevelopment. However how such growth should be followed, what mix of internal and external trade and investment is to be required, and how growth should be experienced by different groups and individual countries remain the region’s over riding challenges, as they have been for some six decades. During this time, a variety of models of inter-state partnership and integration have been adopted and discarded by the ECLAC. A succession of left-leaning leaders has joined their power across Latin America in the hope to improve the social and economic development in the region. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez sees this as an momentous opportunity to create a new power bloc in Latin America to reject US influence in the region. In 2006, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez declares that Latin America is witnessing a major anti-U.S. leftward swing. These anti-U.S. leftward swings are due to the Washington-backed economic recommendation like unfettered trade and privatization. The new leaders and movements bring to power, though; threaten to create a political free-for-all that could weaken already unstable countries. The movement is not only in Bolivia; Fidel Castro in Cuba and Hugo Chaves in Venezuela are logging victory in social movements and leftist policies so the regions improves it economics and social development. Twelve countries in Latin America held the presidential elections whose result created powerful debate on whether or not the region was under the effect of a shift to the left. Although some are more to the left than others including Honduras, Bolivia, Peru and Costa Rica, four out of the twelve, the left remained in power and only two out of the twelve exhibited a shift to the right. This shift to the left in the region is best recognized as a regional wave, in which severe socioeconomic inequality has produced wide support for leftist candidates in many countries, while international factors including the diffusion of democratic models and increased economic incorporation have encouraged moderation among both leftist governments and their traditional opponents. (Cleary 2006). The political crises in Latin America goes hand in hand with the economic crisis Some parties recover from economic crises, but many do not, and in their place you have all these new, ever changing movements. But Thanks to successful social policies and measures that have supported the economy, most of the countries of Latin America have managed to endure the impact of the global recession, although poverty has risen slightly for the first time since 2002. In fact, Latin America is known for having the biggest gap in the world between rich and poor. The department for International development (Starbird & Pettit 2004) said, the richest tenth among Latin Americans earns 48% of total income in the region, while the poorest tenth earns just 1.6%. There were 224 million of the region's people that were living in poverty in 2001. Although there is broad hopefulness about the future, in the light of modern political changes, participants were all too conscious of the common problems that have symbolized the region for decades. Poverty decline has been a goal since the early after World War II period. Nevertheless the reports suggest that the poverty rate in the region have significantly dropped from 44% to 33% between 2002 and 2007, that’s from 224 million people in poverty to 182 million, although 71 million still live in abject poverty, the UN agency notes. (HOPENHAYN, 2009). Consequently Latin America is well-positioned to meet the first goal established for the UN Millennium Development Goals, of halving the 1990 extreme poverty rate by 2015. However ECLAC report of (2007) stated that despite the positive regional estimate, the differences between the countries in the region are great. Many countries need to do more to meet the poverty reduction targets than others, for example the gap between rich and poor grew significantly in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, Hopenhayn (2007) added, ahead of the presentation of ECLAC's annual report on poverty and social spending in the region. These leftist movements across Latin America built a strong region through support and hard-knuckle politics, they suggested stability and clear beliefs. Voters are increasingly enthusiastic by the new and mostly leftist movements in Latin America guaranteeing to redistribute wealth, punishing traditional parties and turning political systems on their heads. The recent ‘shift to the left’ in Latin America has helped the social and economic development in the region. As in the case of Bolivia, Evo Morales won a crucial majority (54%) to become the country’s first indigenous president in December 2005. A close ally of Hugo Chávez, Morales has nationalized industries (oil, gas, and mining) and pushed through a new constitution. As for Brazil, Lula has sought to continue Brazil’s economic growth while reducing the country’s high inequality. Under Lula, Brazil has become a major regional (and potential world) power. In Chile, Michelle Bachelet won a second-round election (53%) on a centre-left platform that promised to continue liberal economic policies, but with greater emphasis on reducing inequality. Also Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua as part of a move to the centre narrowly (38-28-27) beat two candidates of the right in November 2006. Ortega is an ally of Hugo Chávez, who provides Nicaragua with significant economic aid. (Vigil, 2006). Overall across Latin America, the political turmoil has gathered force with the introduction of decentralization, which since the 1990's has allowed voters in several countries to choose their own mayors and other local leaders for the first time. Increasingly aggressive and sometimes independent news media have also heaped scorn on old parties, while lending visibility to new movements. All these are big help, because it keeps social protections safe from ideological and political shifts. In addition, the idea of a stronger, more active state has gained wide popular support by the voters In terms of economy throughout the 1980s the average real per capita GDP in Latin America declined because of the debt crises, and in the 1990s it expanded at 1.5 percent per year, just four percent below the average of developing countries in Asia. Furthermore between 1980 and 2000 the income gap between Latin America and the OECD expanded, and there was slight development in the decrease of poverty. By the beginning of the millennium close to 50 percent of the population in Latin America lived in poverty. (Moreno-Brid, 2006). By 2000 30 percent of the population across the region believed that privatizations were beneficial, an approval rate 30 points lower than a few years before, even so many believe that market economies are the only road to development. And that led to Latin American being more and more critical of the new-liberal economic policies. Physical insecurity and the lack of employment were becoming major fears among the people of Latin America. Moreover, by then a significant proportion of Latin Americans questioned the qualities of democracy in so far as it had not led to a flow of economic expansion and job creation. Which led to within the last ten years in Latin America saw a surge of parties, and movements commonly labeled as "leftist" have seize into power in one Latin American country after another. After Chávez, it was Lula and the Workers' Party in Brazil, then Néstor Kirchner in Argentina and Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay, and then, earlier this year, Evo Morales in Bolivia. There two lefts in Latin America. One has radical roots but is now open-minded and modern; the other is close-minded and enthusiastically populist. All these leftist governments have led their countries to positive outcome in terms of social and economical development of the region. The decline of inequality is one of them. What led the decline in inequality in Latin America is the increase of social spending, since the leftist, and centre left governments took power in the region, the social spending increased with a heavier transfer of resources to the poor. Another was the demographic shift, with a drop in the number of children in poor households, Uruguay being an exception to that trend. A third constituent is the improvement in the labour situation among the poor. To conclude the shift to the left in Latin American countries meant the social and economic development in the region has improved. These leftist, centre-left governments in countries such as Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Venezuela have gained encouragement in the fight for human rights, better living and working conditions and an end to corporate exploitation, they have vowed to fight poverty and the primary goal was the needs of the people over the interests of Washington and international corporations and military violence. However it hasn’t always looked that way. For decades Latin America was suffering from the rule of cruel dictators, including General Rios Montt in Guatemala, Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Jorge Videla in Argentina and many more. These dictators were against the leftist support and implemented economic reforms with the help of Washington Censuses; they produce neoliberal economic policies to the region. These policies included opening up markets for investment, putting public works in the hands of private corporations, rejected government interference in the economy, worked to dissolve unions and involved poor nations borrowing millions through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The debts accrued by military dictators are crippling Latin American countries to this day. Therefore these the current leftist shift in Latin America is a reaction to the failures of these previous policies. From ending military occupation in Uruguay, breaking with the IMF and defaulting on its payments to the IMF, in argentine, to rejecting US -backed trade agreements in Bolivia the region has seen significant social and economic development since the leftist governments have been in power. The New Left governments have shown strong economic caution mixed with increasing state intervention in economic affairs. They have been very successful in pulling their economies out of deep recession and moving the region to better and more successful economic and social policies. Ana Cecilia Gonzales Vigil (2006) Latin America's Populist Shift, the New York Times [Online] available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/world/americas/20peru.html [Accessed on: 19/04/2010] Caroline Starbird & Jenny Pettit (2004) Contemporary Issues in South America, Publisher: Centre for Teaching International Relations Celso Furtado () Economic development of Latin America: historical background and Chakravarthi Raghavan () INEQUALITY IN LATIN AMERICA WORSENS, Third world Network [Online] available at http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/eclac.htm [Accessed on: 19/04/2010] Cleary, Matthew R. 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Petras, Henry Veltmeyer (2009) Whats left in Latin America': regime change in new times, Publisher: Ashgate Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid (2006) The Future of Economic Policy Making by Left-of-Center Governments in Latin America: Old Wine in New Bottles' Research Coordinator, ECLAC-Mexico and Igor Paunovic, Economic Affairs Officer ECLAC-Mexico [Online] available at http://www.networkideas.org/news/may2006/Latin_America.pdf [Accessed on: 21/04/2010] Michael C G Dunne (2006) Political Change in Latin America: Implications for the Region, US, EU and Asia-Pacific, Report on Wilton Park Conference WP823 [Online] available at http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/documents/conferences/WP823/pdfs/WP823.pdf [Accessed on: 11/04/2010] MARTÍN HOPENHAYN, (2009) Impact of Crisis in Latin America Less Severe than in the Past Global issue [Online] available at http://www.globalissues.org/news/2009/11/19/3569 [Accessed on: 12/04/2010] Robert G. Wesson (1985) Politics, policies, and economic development in Latin America, Publisher: Hoover Institution Press,U.S.