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.
