10/27/2007
There’s a review of Liberty for Latin America: How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression in the University Bookman:Whether the political winds shift left or right, patterns of behavior in Latin America are still guided, according to Vargas Llosa, by “five principles of oppression:” corporatism, state mercantilism, privilege, wealth transfer, and political law. Of the five, political law, defined by Vargas Llosa as “power over the truth,” makes all the other principles possible. In Latin America, the interests of men always seem to trump the impartiality of the law.So here’s the question — if you're looking for "Hispanic votes,"and importing Hispanic voters, are these the political traditions you're supporting?Vargas Llosa claims these principles began during the Stone Age empires of the Aztecs and the Incas and were reinforced by the Golden Age empire of the Spanish. Their theological foundations were honed during the age of absolutism. No political movement in Latin America, not even the liberal republicanism of the early nineteenth century, has succeeded in eliminating them. Indeed, the republican tradition quickly gave way to the caudillo tradition, the rule of the strong, which in turn made the state illegitimate in the eyes of most. Even “institutional” revolutions, like that of Mexico in the early twentieth century, only ended up consolidating these “five deadly sins” by confiscating property and imposing other statist policies.[Latin America’s Five Deadly Sins, By Michael J. Ard, University Bookman, Volume 45, Number 2 (Spring 2007)]
You might ask the citizens of the formerly American towns of Maywood and South Gate.
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