Just translated to you by my
The recent presidential election in Chile gave political analyst and pundits a lot to talk about the institutional strenght of the country and the category of their politicians. Looking at it from another perspective the victory of Sebastian Pinera, a multi-millionaire business-men, is a prove that the Chilean people are not scare by his economic condition. The fact is very surprising in Latin-American countries were under the Weberian frame-work the society is pre-capitalist, because of the culture of penalizing the material success and protest against a competitive economy.
If crossing the Andes we look at Argentina the find the really close last year parliamentary elections, were also a very rich business-men ,Fernando De Narvaez, beat Nestor Kirchner in the biggest electorate of the nation, Buenos Aires, known to be a Peronist Stronghold.
I do not personally believe that this is setting a tendency toward the mercantilization of the economic teams. Anyway, it is interesting to mark the change of certain prejudice that not long ago would think about those outcomes to be unthinkable. The stereotype of the business-men image, wealthy and self-interested, seemed to be a something that unable them to take on public office oriented to the well being of the whole society
In the opposite direction the election of Lula, a metallurgic Brazilian labourer, without any formal academic formation. And Uruguay a old insurgent, rough in the edges looking and vulgar talk, also tell us that the lack of formation is not a dis qualifier in order to reach the power. The citizenship is looking to be more oriented in the search for personal trust and a spirit of solidarity with those less fortunate people.
What is clear now is that the argument about ideas has been put to aside in the motivations of the voters. The oppositions of black and white, State vs market, privatizations vs state own companies, provincial State vs minimal State, have given way to more ambiguous paths, were is clear that non extreme recipe is effective in the facts.
The primitive version of interventionism pushed by Chavez under the over the top name of Socialismo del Siglo XXI, does not go any further than being a speech loaded with rhetoric, which not even his Latin American so called friends really believe in it. In this way be find that the Chilean neo-liberalism has lived side by side with the state owned copper, and the Lulist socialism has used the most Orthodox monetary policy in the hemisphere, with the highest interest rates in the planet.
In Chile there was a certain tiredness of the left-wing Concertacion, besides of its economic and political success. The demand for change of faster and effective actions, to move on from the rational and boring tone used by the traditional political parties had its answer.
Voting a business-men per-se is not a value. But disqualify it a priory for the government is a prejudge. Vote for a candidate without academic formation also is not a value, but disqualify it is also a prejudge, very close to the laughs that made fun of Sancho in his Insula de Barataria when they offered classes of good common-sens. They are changes, are changes. The partisan loyalties and personal figures are not that strong anymore, more important now are the shape than the substances.
Because of formation, I am not very enthusiastic about this inclination. But there it is and is better to face it with maturity rather than being ingenue seducted of dismiss them by instinct.
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