Imagining a Centrist Revival in Latin America
Overcoming today’s extreme polarization is no easy task. But a more results-focused politics is necessary, the authors argue.
Much has been said about the growing political discontent throughout Latin America, where a declining percentage of the population is satisfied with democracy—even in countries where social indicators have been improving such as Chile, Colombia, or Peru. There is a paradox that goes as far back as the nineteenth-century work of Alexis de Tocqueville: Social frustration often grows as social conditions improve. The symptoms of this malady are well known: a mistrust of the system; a disenchantment with traditional politics and politicians; a social fatigue prone to explode into civil unrest;...
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