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Store: An Independent Institute Book
Co-publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
© 2005 |
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LIBERTY FOR LATIN AMERICA
How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression
By
Alvaro Vargas Llosa
In Liberty for Latin America, Alvaro Vargas Llosa offers an incisive diagnosis of Latin America’s woes—and a prescription for finally getting the region on the road to both genuine prosperity and the protection of human rights.
When the economy in Argentina—at one time a model of “free-market” reform—collapsed in 2002, experts of all persuasions asked: What went wrong? Vargas Llosa shows that what went wrong in Argentina has in fact gone wrong all over the continent for over five hundred years. Chronicling Latin America’s political and economic history, he shows how the republics of the 19th century and the revolutions of the 20th century—populist uprisings, Marxist coups, state takeovers, and First World-sponsored privatization—have all run up against the oligarchic legacy of statism. Illiberal elites backed by the U.S. and Europe have perpetuated what he calls the “five principles of oppression” in order to maintain their hold on power. The region has become “a laboratory for political and economic suicide,” while comparable countries in Asia and Eastern Europe have prospered.
The only way to change Latin America, Vargas Llosa argues, is to remove the five principles of oppression, genuinely reforming institutions and the underlying culture for the benefit of the disempowered public. In Liberty for Latin America, he explains how, offering hope as well as insight for all those who care for the future of this troubled region.
Detailed Summary |
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Table of Contents
What Failed
1. The Five Principles of Oppression
2. The Twentieth Century: The Hour of the Snail
3. Friendly Fire from the United States
What Succeeded
4. What Could Have Been
5. The Liberal Tradition
Reform
6. When Things Looked Right, They Were Wrong
7. The Fever of Change
8. The Capitalist Mirage
9. Corruption and the Ethical Abyss
Turning the Tide
10. Liberty for Latin America
Praise for Liberty for Latin America “If you want to understand why we are poor, why a continent that should be rich has not worked, read Alvaro Vargas Llosa’s new book, Liberty for Latin America. It is not a repetitive story, nor a simple chronological connection of events, but a sharp historical and economic analysis.... Vargas Llosa solves this puzzle in a pleasant form and with abundant references, allowing all those who want to deeply understand these issues to do so.... Vargas Llosa tells us how northern European countries and the U.S. developed only when they abandoned the mercantilism that was practiced in Europe since the Middle Ages. Such a system, governed by legal positivism and ‘political law,’ is not based on the recognition of individual rights but on political connections. Under mercantilism, the citizen must serve the government and not the other way around, privileged sectors manage the country’s economy, and a continuous wealth transfer flows from the poor to the rich.”
—MANUEL AYAU CORDON, Founder, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala
“You may not agree with everything Alvaro Vargas Llosa says in his Liberty for Latin America, but you should take very seriously his central argument: that lack of political and economic freedom is at the root of our region’s underdevelopment. With this volume, Alvaro makes an important contribution to the present debate on the causes of Latin America’s poor economic and social performance.”
—ERNESTO ZEDILLO, former President of Mexico; Director, Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University
“There is much to admire in Alvaro Vargas Llosa’s Liberty for Latin America, not least of which its sweep, ranging across centuries of economic history from Mexico to the Southern Cone. He is especially incisive on the free market reforms that became the rage during the ’80s and ’90s, with Washington’s encouragement, but that have left intact the stagnation and crony capitalism they aimed to end. This is an intriguing manifesto, passionately argued.”
—SAMUEL DILLON, Pulitzer Prize–Winning New York Times Correspondent and former Mexico City Bureau Chief; co-author, Opening Mexico
"Alvaro Vargas Llosa might be counted among those disciples [of the Austrian school economist Ludwig von Mises] in his eloquent book, Liberty for Latin America. Llosa's impassioned review of 'How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression' does not spare the United States, which has all too often propped up 'authoritarian, corrupt, and mercantilist institutions.' For the difference between true capitalist reforms and bogus ones, Chapter 8 ('The Capitalist Mirage') makes for especially informative reading."
—BARRON'S
“Alvaro Vargas Llosa has just published a remarkable book, titled Liberty for Latin America. It is a must-read for all those who are interested in the causes of underdevelopment, and especially for those who have hopes of a remedy. Far from being an essay that goes with the wind, the young Vargas Llosa, a veteran journalist and elegant writer, has constructed his study on a solid scientific basis with an intimate knowledge of the Latin American reality.”
—PEDRO SCHWARTZ, La Vanguardia (Spain); Syndicated Columnist and President of Fundesco
“Liberty for Latin America presents Alvaro Vargas Llosa’s thoughtful analysis of what has impeded Latin America’s progress and what needs to be done. It is well worth reading.”
—LAWRENCE HARRISON, Professor, Fletcher School, Tufts University; Associate, Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University; Author, The Pan-American Dream
“Can Latin America overcome underdevelopment and cease to be the poorest and most hopeless segment of the West? Peruvian writer Alvaro Vargas Llosa believes that it can.... The well documented book, which is entertaining despite the topic’s density, is the fruit of two years of research at the Independent Institute in California.
“Why does ‘everything’ in Latin America usually fail? Vargas Llosa has a daring, but coherent, explanation: Neither the cultural features of Latin America nor its prevailing institutions lead to stability and a growing prosperity.”
—CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER, The Miami Herald, Vice President of Liberal International; Syndicated Columnist and Author, Secret Report on the Cuban Revolution
“Liberty for Latin America is a gripping account of five hundred years of Latin American oppression. But it’s not just another re-cycle of that well-worn story. Far from it. Vargas Llosa marshals an impressive array of evidence to successfully make his incisive case: no rule of law, no liberty, no progress. This book is essential reading”
—STEVE H. HANKE, Professor of Applied Economics, Johns Hopkins University; Columnist, Forbes magazine
“In Liberty for Latin America, the brilliant Peruvian writer and journalist, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, relates the immense damage caused by the economic nationalism that has dominated Latin America since the Second World War.... Vargas Llosa blames the Latin American tragedy on the oppression represented by corporativism and state-mercantilism, privilege, wealth transfer and political law.”
—CARLOS BALL, El Nuevo Herald
“The citizenship demands change. But what kind of transformation do we need? The new book by Alvaro Vargas Llosa entitled Liberty for Latin America is a study that we, the Uruguayans, should pay attention to, because it is very appropriate with regard to this ‘change’ that we are calling for so stridently.”
—BÚSQUEDA (Uruguay)
“Liberty for Latin America is an analysis of how differing cultures and institutions enable or impede the emergence and flourishing of free, representative governments and broadly productive economies. It is an analysis of the causes and consequences of liberty and oppression in the history of mankind, focusing on and thus constituting the most profound, enlightening study available of Latin American history.”
—WILLIAM RATLIFF, Research Fellow and Curator of the Americas Collection, Hoover Institution, Stanford University About the Author Alvaro Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America’s foremost political journalists. A native of Peru, he graduated from the London School of Economics and has worked as a journalist in Latin America, Europe and the U.S. for over fifteen years. He is now a Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute.
He has authored twelve books, which have been published in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Italian. He is also co-author of Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, a bestseller in Latin America, Spain and the United States.
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