It’s easy to assume that the reason a hard right candidate won in South America was because of U.S. intervention. While the U.S. does frequently intervene, it is not always successful. As this article points out, the Kirchner regimes had twelve years to introduce socialist programs, and instead they institutionalized moderate reforms. Additionally, the unions lost their class edge and entered into friendly relations with the government. Now the unions have very little bargaining power. This demonstrates time and again that, with rare exceptions, social democracy doesn’t work.
About Bruce Lerro
Bruce Lerro has taught for 25 years as an adjunct college professor of psychology at Golden Gate University, Dominican University and Diablo Valley College. He has applied a Vygotskian socio-historical perspective to his five books: "From Earth-Spirits to Sky-Gods: the Socio-ecological Origins of Monotheism, Individualism and Hyper-Abstract Reasoning", "Power in Eden: The Emergence of Gender Hierarchies in the Ancient World" (co-authored with Christopher Chase-Dunn), "Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present", "Lucifer's Labyrinth: Individualism, Hyper-Abstract Thinking and the Process of Becoming Civilized", and "The Magickal Enchantment of Materialism: Why Marxists Need Neopaganism". He is also a representational artist specializing in pen-and-ink drawings. Bruce is a libertarian communist and lives in Olympia, WA.
View all posts by Bruce Lerro →