Foreign Affairs - 03.2020 - 04.2020

(Frankie) #1

Recent Books


178 «¬® ̄°±² ³««³°® ́


Western Hemisphere


Richard Feinberg


Unfulžlled Promises: Latin America Today
EDITED BY MICHAEL SHIFTER
AND BRUNO BINETTI. Inter-
American Dialogue, 2019, 166 pp.

T


his eclectic collection brings
together leading scholars o’
economics, social policy, public
security, and international relations in
sketching the progress and frustrations
o¤ Latin American development. The
contributors generally advocate incre-
mental approaches that build on
previous progress, rather than root-
and-branch upheaval. The separate
chapters advance sound, i’ at times
exacting, policy recommendations:
countries should diversify their higher-
quality exports, raise their labor pro-
ductivity, enlarge their ¥scal capacity,
target pockets o’ poverty, bolster their
social safety nets to safeguard their
emerging middle classes, make their
governance and regulatory structures
more eective and transparent, and
adopt comprehensive crime-¥ghting
strategies. The contributors underplay
the overwhelming pressures o’ popula-
tion growth and rapid urbanization in
some parts o¤ Latin America, as well as
the growing aspirations o’ middle
classes that current growth rates will not
soon satisfy. In highlighting the short-
comings o¤ Latin American develop-
ment, some essays inadvertently feed
the notion, employed by authoritarian
demagogues, that the region’s “unful-

tive for foreign policy. Traditionally,
this turnover is also a moment for ̄º
o¾cials to establish new priorities and a
budgetary framework to pay for them.
Just such a transition is occurring now.
In this collection, analysts from Brue-
gel, one o¤ Brussels’s most respected
think tanks, review 11 issues and oer
concrete policy recommendations for
̄º leaders. Each chapter constitutes a
concise memo to the relevant o¾cials.
There are limitations: the chapters
focus almost exclusively on industrial
regulation, ¥nancial and digital services,
competition policy, and other economic
matters, areas in which Bruegel special-
izes; foreign policy, migration, Russian
subversion, homeland security, and
other important issues go neglected.
The market-oriented recommendations
are too numerous and idealistic, focus-
ing on what would increase aggregate
welfare rather than what is politically
viable. The writing is jargon laden.
Nonetheless, those who seek a succinct
overview o’ the ̄º’s potential course o’
action over the next ¥ve years are
unlikely to ¥nd a better starting point.

Free download pdf