NewsWhore
03-19-2009, 06:40 PM
Speaking at The Economist Business Roundtable in the DR at the Santo Domingo Hilton yesterday, Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, warned Latin American countries to take note that clientelism in Venezuela is what led to the current authoritarian regime. "We still have time to build a more responsible capitalism, but we need more democratic political parties," he said at the conference that focused on how the DR and Latin America are responding to the international financial crisis.
Gamarra said that security has become a leading matter of concern in Latin America. "It is not a time for demagoguery, it is a time for creativity and responsible government policies".
Gamarra also says the biggest challenge in Latin America is one of perception, and how countries are going to react to the crisis.
Ian Vasquez of the Cato Institute, who also was a panelist at the conference, challenged the notion that open markets had failed. He said the debate was not over, adding that what there has been is deficient government institutions in Latin America. "The size of the informal sector says that people are rejecting what is formal," he said. He favors the building of states where the rule of law prevails, such as the United States and Europe were able to create as their institutions evolved and strengthened.
He said that Latin America has 25 years of economic opening, and that reducing tariffs and privatizing companies is an easy task. "But to change a country's institutions takes time and is infinitely more complex," he said.
He commented that in Latin America only Chile could be described as a state with a rule of law. "And it is the most economically open country," he said. He said that developed countries became so by strengthening their institutions. "They first found ways of limiting government power," he said.
Vasquez says it is not clear how the crisis will affect Latin American countries and how countries will react. He said that some countries have responded by opening their markets further, like the case of Peru seeking a trade agreement with China. He forecasts, though, that all countries that maintain a populist model are going to have serious problems. He mentioned Argentina as one where policies are unsustainable. For Venezuela he forecast more centralization and loss of citizen freedoms.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
Gamarra said that security has become a leading matter of concern in Latin America. "It is not a time for demagoguery, it is a time for creativity and responsible government policies".
Gamarra also says the biggest challenge in Latin America is one of perception, and how countries are going to react to the crisis.
Ian Vasquez of the Cato Institute, who also was a panelist at the conference, challenged the notion that open markets had failed. He said the debate was not over, adding that what there has been is deficient government institutions in Latin America. "The size of the informal sector says that people are rejecting what is formal," he said. He favors the building of states where the rule of law prevails, such as the United States and Europe were able to create as their institutions evolved and strengthened.
He said that Latin America has 25 years of economic opening, and that reducing tariffs and privatizing companies is an easy task. "But to change a country's institutions takes time and is infinitely more complex," he said.
He commented that in Latin America only Chile could be described as a state with a rule of law. "And it is the most economically open country," he said. He said that developed countries became so by strengthening their institutions. "They first found ways of limiting government power," he said.
Vasquez says it is not clear how the crisis will affect Latin American countries and how countries will react. He said that some countries have responded by opening their markets further, like the case of Peru seeking a trade agreement with China. He forecasts, though, that all countries that maintain a populist model are going to have serious problems. He mentioned Argentina as one where policies are unsustainable. For Venezuela he forecast more centralization and loss of citizen freedoms.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)