Brazil won't make it - again

Brazil's Dilemma

Brazil's economy has lifted 30 million people out of poverty since 2003. Brazil's political culture, however, has made little progress: the political establishment is still mired in cronyism, and voters still cling to the counterproductive policies of the Workers' Party, according to Alvaro Vargas Llosa, editor of Lessons from the Poor and author of Liberty for Latin America.

"Brazilian leaders have long had an 'anti-American' complex," writes Vargas Llosa. "The obsession makes them do things simply because they seem in opposition." Dilma Rousseff, the leading candidate in October's presidential election in October, is no exception.

Some scholars believe that Brazil's statist economic policies originated partly as a reaction to a perceived rejection by the United States. But if Brazilians wish to improve their country, they would do better by embracing an even older tradition--the one that the Baron of Rio Branco, Jose Maria da Silva Paranhos, pioneered in the early 20th century. Adopting this tradition, Vargas Llosa suggests, would enable Brazil's political institutions to keep pace with its fast-growing economy.

"Brazil's Third World Dilemma," by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (8/25/10) Spanish Translation

Liberty for Latin America: How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, edited by Alvaro Vargas