Latin America Essay

Words: 1191
Pages: 5

Since the 1980s, most Latin American countries have transitioned from repressive military regimes entering to open democratic systems, which are present in developed countries. In Latin America, democracy did not necessarily brought prosperity and in fact there are some factors that would place Latin America far behind, in terms of economic development, compared to other democracies. Including, high level of poverty, inequality, persistent social exclusion and overall, lack of improvement in the life of Latin American citizens. The literature opens a variety of explanation and variables that could affect and/or cause each one of these factors, which lead to the low development in the region.

It is important to clearly understand “democracy”
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They do agree with the need to address market failure but would suggest that this is a necessary yet no sufficient condition to change. Indeed, under their ideas it could be implied that trade liberalization is not a remedy for poverty alleviation or for development and in some cases, it has exacerbated inequality. In the case of Latin America, a region abundant of natural resources, some countries may be exposed to difficulties generated by trade liberalization. According to dependency theory, the situation of developing is aggravate mainly due to the declining terms of trade. Moreover, their belief is that multinational corporations could lead to exploiting cheap labor in order to maximize their profits (Franko 2007: 238). There are also, gender and environmental concerns linked to globalization. Pressures created by international trade create unsustainable conditions, due to the low environmental standards in the region (Franko 2007: 238). Regarding gender, due to the cheap female labor force in Latin America, as a result women work in poor conditions and low wages.
Moreover Polaski, argues that in the case of agriculture, if liberalized, developing countries would be net losers. According to the Carnegie model, the Doha Round would benefit mainly high-income countries, which by liberalizing their agricultural sectors, they could maintain their “expensive and inefficient subsidies” (Polaski 2006: 70). In sum, globalization, according to institutionalist was impoverishing Latin