Revolution on Hold?

Latin America at the End of Politics, by Forrest D. Colburn. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2002). 152 pp. $35.

"The End of History?" Originally the title of Francis Fukuyama's widely read and controversial 1989 article, ¹ the term is now used to characterize the global political economy of the post-Cold War era. Fukuyama's nuanced and often misunderstood thesis argued that socialism had ceased to be an alternative to liberal democracy following the demise of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. Thus, the preeminent ideological battle that had dominated the twentieth century was over. To be sure, Fukuyama recognized that "history" would continue—surely the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 constitute "history"—but he believed that these events would not challenge liberal democracy's supremacy over other forms of political and economic organization.

In his unorthodox and refreshing, yet ultimately incomplete book, Latin America at the End of Politics, long-time Latin America observer Forrest Colburn asserts that Latin America is at the end of history or, as he puts it, the end of politics with a capital "p." The second half of the twentieth century was a tumultuous time in Latin America. Revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua, civil war in El Salvador, and human rights abuses and "dirty wars" in Guatemala and Argentina are but a few of the examples of "Politics" being played out. In almost all of these clashes, the outcomes—either literal or purely ideological—were uncertain. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, however, these types of "macro" debates have largely disappeared, replaced by the triumph of liberalism, which Colburn defines as the combination of democracy and capitalism.

Colburn's thesis is that the elimination of a viable socialist alternative—while a desirable development in that it helped to end much of the violence of earlier periods—has lessened the sense of urgency among intellectuals and political leaders to address the region's pressing social issues. With this in mind, Colburn provides a snapshot of Latin America today in an effort to discover what cultural and social changes have accompanied the rise of liberalism. What he finds is not encouraging. Environmental degradation, skyrocketing crime rates, and a pervasive mistrust of public institutions are only some of the issues that are crippling Latin America's social, political, and economic development.

Colburn's chapters focus on individuals such as Gilberto, an Ecuadorian "entrepreneur" attempting to grow his modest shrimp farm into something more. Global competition, mountains of bureaucratic "red tape," and an uncertain macroeconomic climate turn Gilberto's efforts to run a successful business into a quixotic struggle. The most shocking part of Gilberto's story is that, with a good education, seed capital, and an unflappable drive to succeed, he is an anomaly in his country. One wonders, if Gilberto is not making it in Ecuador, who is? Sadly, too often the answer is the corrupt politicians and government officials who failed to intervene in his conflict with banana growers whose fertilizers were potentially damaging his harvest. Rather than attempting to "succeed," most Ecuadorians understandably resign themselves to just "getting by," a reality that seems to describe much of contemporary Latin America.

What separates Colburn's take on life in Latin America from more academic accounts is how real his portraits feel. There are no bar graphs or statistics on current account balances. Rather, this is a book about ordinary people in Latin America. The unfortunate reality is that their lives are often difficult; the ideological struggle may have ended, but the struggle for a decent life continues.

Unfortunately, Colburn does not address the fact that significant parts of Latin America are still firmly involved in "Politics." Take Colombia, for example, where guerrilla insurgencies formed in the 1960s greenhouse of ideological politics are alive and well today. In fact, they are stronger than ever and represent a serious threat to Colombia's democratic government. Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has survived over a dozen attempts on his life...