A typically human reaction
Quote of note:
The UNDP report is excellent in presenting the problems: Slow economic growth, profound inequalities, and ineffective legal systems and social services are triggering popular unrest and giving way to a new willingness to trust in those discredited old populist caudillos.
Only 43 percent of Latin Americans are supportive of democracy, while 30.5 percent express ambivalence, and 26.5 percent hold nondemocratic views. Fully 54.7 percent say they would support an authoritarian regime over the present democratic forms if authoritarian rule could resolve their economic problems. The first generation of Latin Americans to come of age in functioning democracies has experienced virtually no per capita income growth during their lifetimes and only widening and world-record disparities in the distribution of national income.
LATIN AMERICA REFUSES TO CONSIDER WORLD'S SUCCESSFUL MODELS
Fri Jul 2, 8:00 PM ET
By Georgie Anne Geyer
WASHINGTON -- Think of these questions as presenting a challenging puzzle for our times, to be answered -- or not -- at our own risk:
What part of the world has gone through such an historic political transformation that it is today governed almost entirely by democratically chosen leaders? Which region has persistently said no to military rule over the last 25 years and seen a constant improvement in voting rights, fair and free elections, an independent press and most other basic civil liberties?
And which geographical and cultural grouping of nations of the world -- blessed with every kind of natural and mineral riches, plus an intelligent people -- now has a population in which fewer than 50 percent say they prefer democracy to authoritarian rule, and in which a majority would choose a dictator over an elected leader because they remain so backward and impoverished?
The answer is simple, but deeply disturbing because we are talking about Latin America, the sister continent to North America and the one part of the developing world that is of Western (and, of course, Indian and African) heritage.
