Word: populist
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...sound and fury it has generated, the region's near stalemate may be a good thing: For most of the 20th century, Latin America swung between oligarchic capitalism and populist socialism, and neither fixed the continent's tragic gap between rich and poor. A more sensible, European-style mix - a Third Way - was often discussed; but reactionaries like Chile's Augusto Pinochet and communists like Cuba's Fidel Castro gave it no room to breathe. Now, with democracy more entrenched in the region, the two camps have been forced to face the fact that Latin voters prefer fresh ideas...
...Many of the winning Democratic candidates, such as Brown, ran on a populist platform, emphasizing pocketbook issues like raising the minimum wage and attacking oil and drug companies. But even if economic populism did help elect many Democrats, will it necessarily sell in a presidential race? You might remember that a Democratic presidential candidate once spent the latter half of his campaign railing about the evils of powerful corporate interests and was widely criticized for it by many in his own party and lost. His name was Al Gore. And the Democrats can't even agree on the hero...
...barring the emergence of a Democrat who can talk about faith and appear to be centrist and progressive at the same time, (see Obama, Barack), Democrats will remain mired in a never-ending debate of left vs. center, Netroots vs. DLC, populist vs. business-friendly. Of course, they can take some comfort from one other election lesson: as Republicans found out this year, having an agenda everyone agrees on isn't the same thing as accomplishing it - or winning on Election...
...opportunism--or both--that when he recaptured Nicaragua's presidency in the Nov. 5 election, his running mate was none other than Morales. Ortega still wears that drowsy look of arrogant defiance, speaks in the same mumbling cadence and insists on driving his SUV himself to cultivate a populist image. But with Morales beside him in a Managua hotel ballroom, schmoozing local and foreign investors, Ortega sounds like a changed man. "We won't eradicate poverty by eradicating capital or alienating investors but by joining forces with them," he says. Ortega is playing to the audience, but even former rivals...
...handle its demographic bulge--but lately has been producing about half that. A balance of at least 400,000 is heading across the border, and there is no end in sight. The bitterly contested July elections--narrowly won (by a margin of 0.6%) by Felipe Calderón against the populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador--were largely fought over economic policies, as are, at least in part, the recent battles in Oaxaca. The campaign exposed a yawning chasm between those benefiting from the status quo and those falling further behind: almost 48% of Mexicans continue to live in poverty...