Social Agenda for Democracy in Latin America: Leadership beyond Politics?
This post was written by WOLA Intern Ursela Groat
On Tuesday, six former Latin American presidents, including Alejandro Toledo of Peru and Vicente Fox of Mexico, met in Washington D.C. to present their initial report entitled “The Social Agenda for Democracy in Latin America for the Next Twenty Years.” The report, which is endorsed by twenty former presidents from the region, is part of an initiative by the Global Center for Development and Democracy that will be presented to sitting Latin American presidents at the Ibero-American Summit later this month. Download the executive summary of the report here.
The “Social Agenda”, as Mr. Toledo put it, is an initiative “by Latin America and for Latin America” to replace the so-called Washington Consensus of the ‘90s by providing policy guidance and recommendations on social reform and economic policy to current Latin American heads of state. The report presents 16 policy recommendations that are aimed at decreasing poverty, strengthening democratic institutions, and creating sustainable and fair economic growth. Some of the specific initiatives include reforming the educational system, expanding conditional cash transfers to the poor and increasing microfinance credit availability. The policy recommendations, which were fairly uncontroversial, were presented alongside a proposal for monitoring their progress in terms of economic growth and institutional strengthening.
On one hand, the report is a recognition of the failure of the Washington Consensus to promote sustainable development and decrease poverty in Latin America and on the other, an attempt to provide a counterbalance to trends of, as Mr. Fox referred to them, “authoritarian radicalism” and “demagoguery” that have emerged in the region. The leaders argued that the poverty and social exclusion that have resulted from these failures have led to a loss of faith in democracy, and consequently, an erosion of democratic institutions in the region.
The tagline for the summit in D.C. was “Liderazgo más allá de la política,” or “Leadership beyond politics,” but while it was refreshing to hear all the ex-presidents speak about social inclusion, solidarity, and sustainable growth, it was obvious that this report is not free from the politics of the region. The leaders themselves implicitly recognized this fact as they joked about how their signatures would make the current presidents less likely to accept the report because they criticized the policies of the current leaders of their countries. Also problematic is the fact that the report has no teeth to guarantee implementation in any way, and that it does not deal with several controversial issues in the region such as drug-trafficking, migration, or how to address the rising tide of “demagoguery” it criticizes.
How this report is received by the current presidents of Latin America at the Ibero-American summit this month will indicate whether or not they are willing to move beyond politics to tackle the endemic issues that prevent Latin America from social and economic progress.