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Quotes on Power

About the book Crisis and Leviathan

Contents:

• Introduction
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Cuba
• Currency Issues
• Drug War
• Economic Development
• General
• Guatemala
• Informal Economy
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Peru
• Revolution
• U.S. Empire
• Venezuela
• World Bank and International Monetary Fund

Introduction:

The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed that just as the United States would abstain from intervening in Europe (a promise not kept), it would also prevent Europeans from intervening in the Americas. As implemented, it became a rationale for the U.S. government to keep order in its “own backyard”—even against internal change seen as contrary to its interests or the interest of politically connected American firms. Consequently, Latin America has been the scene of repeated (and often unsuccessful) U.S. military intervention, in places such as Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. In recent years, the “war on drugs” has furnished rationalizations for intervention in Colombia, Panama, and Peru. Nonmilitary intervention, including military assistance and “foreign aid,” was common throughout the region.

This longstanding policy of assuring the existence of friendly regimes and access to resources has cost the people throughout the Americas dearly in money and freedom. It has also guaranteed a stream of military and political crises to which a beefed-up U.S. government could respond, accumulating even more power in the process.

Throughout the 20th century, U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America moved largely between two poles: direct intervention and condescendence. Intervention spans everything from military occupations in the early part of the century to the current “war on drugs” in the Andean region. Condescendence had its pillars in Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, John F. Kennedy’s Alliance For Progress, foreign aid and International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts in the 1990s. These various policies failed to strengthen civil society in Latin America vis-a-vis the various Governments or political factions they were supposed to help or undermine, and made it difficult for Latin Americans to distinguish between authentic capitalist reform and “crony capitalism” of the sort that keeps recurring throughout the region. None of this should make us lose sight of the fact the the primary responsibility for Latin America’s backwardness lies with Latin Americans themselves.

Also, click here for Bibliography for Crisis and Leviathan.

Argentina: Argentina enjoyed a large measure of freedom between the 1850s and the 1920s, a period which brought prosperity to that country. Government intervention—of which Juan Peron’s regime was a symbol—subsequently undermined Argentina’s freedom and prosperity.

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Katra, William H. The Argentine Generation of 1837: Echeverria, Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.

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Brazil: Brazil’s peaceful independence and institutional stability during much of the 19th century spared that country many of the problems experienced by the rest of Latin America. Failure to engage in significant reform, however, preserved a system of heavy concentration of property and political authoritarianism. Economic nationalism in the 20th century, while spurring industrialization, saw the gigantic growth of the State. Insufficient and flawed liberalization was subsequently undertaken under military dictatorship. Recently, under democratic governments, despite some privatization, Brazil has failed to tackle its economic heritage—counting 60 million poor people.

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Chile: Chile has gone farther than other Latin American countries in scaling back the scope of government intervention, although much remains to be done. The economic liberalization reforms during General Augusto Pinochet’s regime have been preserved by civilian successors. Meanwhile, those people responsible for the government terror, mass murders, and other crimes under Pinochet have yet to be held accountable.

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Colombia: In the aftermath of repressive colonial and authoritarian rule, the assault of Marxist guerrillas and drug cartels has only served to undermine Colombia’s institutions and civilian life. Meanwhile, U.S. interventionism, including the “war on drugs,” has made matters even worse.

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Cuba: U.S. entanglement in Cuban affairs predates Fidel Castro’s regime, and began in earnest with the Spanish-American War.

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Currency Issues: Argentina’s half attempt at creating a currency board proved impotent against exorbitant public spending. Bolder solutions have been proposed to stop politicians from debasing the currency.

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Drug War: The U.S.-led “war on drugs” has not reduced the supply of drugs. Instead, it has strengthened authoritarian rule and created widespread corruption in the Andean countries and undermined their economies.

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Economic Development: The causes of Latin American underdevelopment lie in intrusive and oppressive government, the legacy of land expropriation from the masses, and the absence of the rule of law.

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Bernecker, Walter L. and Hans Werner Tobler. Development and Underdevelopment. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993.

Campos, Roberto de Oliveira. Reflection on Latin American Development. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1967.

Chriszt, Michael. “All Pain, No Gain? Reform Fatigue and the Long-Term Outlook in Latin America,” EconSouth, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 2000.

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Frank, Andre G. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969.

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Vargas Llosa, Alvaro. “A Capitalist Revolution in Latin America?: review of the book The Capitalist Revolution in Latin America by Paul Craig Roberts and Karen LaFollette Araujo,” Critical Review, Vol.12, Nos.1-2 (Winter-Spring 1998).

—. “Latin American Liberalism: A Mirage?,” The Independent Review, Vol. VI, No. 3 (Winter 2002), pp. 325-343.

Veliz, Claudio. The Centralist Tradition in Latin America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.

—. The New World of the Gothic Fox: Culture and Economy in English and Spanish America. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1994.

General: Latin America is the offpsring of many cultures and traditions, all of which contain elements that, under different political institutions, could bring prosperity to those countries.

Alberdi, Juan Bautista. The Life and Industrial Labors of William Wheelwright in South America. Boston: A. William & Company, 1877.

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Boeker, Paul. Lost Illusions: Latin America’s Struggle for Democracy as Recounted by Its Leaders. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1990).

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Diskin, Martin, ed. Trouble in Our Backyard: Central America and the United States in the Eighties. New York, Pantheon, 1983.

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Feder, Ernest. The Rape of the Peasantry: Latin America’s Landholding System. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1971.

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Goodman, John C. and Ramona Marotz-Baden, ed. Fighting the War of Ideas in Latin America. Dallas: National Center for Policy Analysis, 1990.

Green, David. The Containment of Latin America: A History of the Myths and Tealities of the Good Neighbor Policy. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1971.

Hamilton, Bernice. Political Thought in Sixteenth Century Spain. New York: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1963.

Hanke, Lewis. All Mankind Is One: A Study of the Disputation Between Bartolom de Las Casas and Juan Gins de Sepulveda in 1550 on the Intellectual and Religious Capacity of the American Indians. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974. The early pioneers of classical liberalism in the Spanish School of Salamanca not only developed advanced economic theories of markets but the ethics of individual rights.

Haring, Clarence. The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1947.

Harrison, Lawrence E. The Pan-American Dream: Do Latin America's Cultural Values Discourage True Partnership With the United States and Canada. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1998.

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—. National Security and United States Policy Toward Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

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Williams, Robert. Export Agriculture and the Crisis in the Central America. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.

Guatemala: Guatemala enjoys a rich cultural heritage as the home of a large population of Maya descent. For much of its independent history, it was not able to break away from a succession of strongmen and military rulers and, in the latter part of the 20th century, Marxist guerrillas seeking to impose state socialism. U.S. intervention in 1954 helped strengthen military rule, which directly or indirectly held the country in its grip until well into the 1980s. When democracy was established, it was not accompanied by deep political and economic reform. The resurgence of a party led by a former military dictator has postponed hopes of such reforms and brought corruption back on the agenda.

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—. La Libre Empresa: Una Introduccion a Los Fundamentos Eticos, Juridicos y Economicos. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Editorial Academica Centroamericana, 1979.

—. El Poso de la Espuma: Prosas Con Prisa y Cronicas Sin Fecha. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Editorial Piedra Santa, 1994.

Schlesinger, Stephen and Stephen Kinzer. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Informal Economy: The informal economy (“black market”) is the creative, market response of the poor to legal and political obstacles placed on ordinary citizens by a system based on privilege.

de Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

—. The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism. New York: Basic Books, 2002.

Mexico: Mexico is currently the United States’ second most important trading partner but its potential remains unrealized. Many Mexican public figures have exposed the country’s flawed political institutions, and reform has stalled after an impressive period that saw the end of rule since 1929 by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).

Araujo, Karen LaFollette. “Review of the book Privatization and Political Change in Mexico by Judith Teichman,” The Independent Review, Vol., II, No. 4 (Spring 1998), pp. 619-623.

Calvert, Peter. The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1914. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1968.

de la Torre, Armando and Sergio Arellano Berumen. La Educacion: El Antidoto Contra el Subdesarrollo. Mexico City: Institucion Politecnica Nacional, Centro de Investigacion de Ciencias Administrativas, 1998.

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—. The Labyrinth of Solitude: The Other Mexico, Return to the Labrinth of Solitude, Mexico and the United States, the Philanthropic Orge. New York: Grove Press, 1985.

Nicaragua: In few countries has U.S. foreign policy aroused so many passions, going back to the 1930s. During the Cold War, Nicaragua became a bloody theater of war and atrocities in the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Sandinista regime gave way to democracy in 1990, but the policies of socialism and a culture of corruption that reached its peak with the recent government of the Liberal Party have kept Nicaragua from developing its potential.

Buckley, Kevin. Panama: The Whole Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

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—. “Panama Canal Stirs Cold Warriors’ Fears,” Journal of Commerce, October 19, 1999.

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Marina, William F. “From Rape to Seduction: Panama and the Shifting Strategy of the American Empire,” Reason (January 1978), pp. 33-50.

Storey, Moorfield. The Recognition of Panama. Boston: George H. Ellis, 1903.

Peru: A long history of corporatism, mercantilism and institutionalized privilege has kept the country from achieving widespread prosperity.

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Vargas Llosa, Alvaro. The Madness of Things Peruvian: Democracy Under Siege. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1994.

Revolution: The United States has pursued a long-standing policy of covert and military interventionism in Latin American affairs in order to impose proxy regimes loyal to U.S. interests. Despite being fueled in response to the widespread corruption, hardship, and repression of oligarghic rule, most subsequent revoluntinary movements in Latin America have brought economic and social misery to the citizenry as a result of a misguided quest for state socialism and a campaign of mass terrorism. The effects have only compounded domestic and international support for authoritarian solutions and “crony” capitalism.

Barnet, Richard J. Intervention and Revolution: The United States in the Third World. New York: New American Library, 1972.

Hagopian, Mark N. The Phenomenon of Revolution. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975.

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U.S. Empire: Its economic and military might places the United States in a unique position vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Its efforts to impose its will across Latin America and other less-developed nations have had entirely counterproductive results and created many enemies.

Kwitny, Jonathan. Endless Enemies: The Making of an Unfriendly World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984.

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Venezuela: Venezuela is a classic example of how statism and mercantilism can squander a nation’s wealth. After the 1930s, the country experienced an oil-based boom that put it well ahead of most of its neighbors. By the 1960s, despite ever-increasing oil production, the nation began its decline. Democratic politics came hand in hand with interventionism and corruption. More than $300 billion (U.S.) worth of oil have been wasted since then. Today, Venezuela is in the hands of an authoritarian government and grinding poverty.

Ellner, Steve and Daniel Hellinger, eds. Venezuelan Politics in the Chavez Era: Class, Polarization and Conflict. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.

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Sabino, Carlos and Jesus Rodriguez. Social Security in Venezuela. Caracas, Venezuela: CEDICE, 1992.

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—. Perfiles de America Latina: Ocho Visiones Venezolanas. Caracas, Venezuela: Monte Avila Editores Latinoamericana, 1992.

World Bank and International Monetary Fund: Many of the policies that have contributed to Latin America’s stagnation, instability and misery have been inspired or supported by multilateral bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Caufield, Catherine. Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations. New York: Henry Holt & Company, Inc, 1997.

Reynolds, Alan. “Imperial Rule: Distant and Out of Touch, the IMF Ruins Economies Great and Small,” National Review, November 9, 1998.

Schuler, Kurt. “A Currency Board Beats IMF Rx,” Wall Street Journal, February 18, 1998.

Wolf, Jr., Charles. “Review of the book Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations by Catherine Caufield,” The Independent Review, Vol. II, No. 4 (Spring 1998), pp. 617-619.