De la (Non) Democratie en Amerique (Latine): a Tocqueville report - Paulo Roberto de Almeida

De la (Non) Démocratie en Amérique (Latine):

A Tocqueville report on the state of governance in Latin America

Paulo Roberto de Almeida,

acting as an Assistant to M. Alexis de Tocqueville,

for a Report commissioned by the World Bank.

26th Estoril Political Forum, IEP-UCP (June 25-27, 2018)

Summary:

Foreword by the assistant rapporteur - Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Preliminary report to the World Bank - Monsieur Alexis de Tocqueville

1. Latin Americans compared to the Americans of the North

2. Of the social conditions in the two parts of the American hemisphere 

3. Of the sovereignty principle in Latin America, or its absence

4. What happened to Latin America, that denied its people an expected progress?

5. What went wrong in Latin American, while Asia-Pacific went forward?

6. Progresses and blockages in Latin America: as time goes by…

7. What to expect from (and for) Latin America in the near future?

In a manner of conclusion, promising a full and complete report.

Abstract:Within a conceptual framework based on Tocqueville’s classic work about Democracy in America– freedom, democracy, equality, political organization, government and administrative centralization, etc. – this essay – drafted in the form of a report from Alexis de Tocqueville to the World Bank, at the demand of its Board – deals with the relative backwardness of Latin American countries, in terms of democratic principles, political accountability, insufficient economic and social development, social inequalities, adopting an historical and comparative perspective (with Asia-Pacific countries, for instance). The region has fragmented itself recently between globalizers, reluctant governments (protectionists and nationalists), and the so-called “Bolivarians”. Finally, it tackles the current and future challenges of Latin American countries, also in a comparative perspective with the Asia-Pacific region, and concludes that most of the problems at the source of the backwardness of the continent, and its peculiar difficulties to adapt and to insert into modernity and globalization are due to especially inept and corrupt elites, of all kinds and social origins. 

Key words: Latin America; Asia-Pacific; comparative analysis; Alexis de Tocqueville; development; globalization; democracy; economic freedom; elites.

Available in Academia.edu (link: https://www.academia.edu/s/a4cbf778cf/de-la-non-democratie-en-amerique-latine-a-tocqueville-report-on-the-state-of-governance-in-latin-america).