May 10, 2006
YOU'D THINK OUR NATIVISTS WOULD FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE MOVING THERE:
Corporatism Redux: Latin America, the Left, and the Church’s Challenge (Samuel Gregg, 5/10/06, Acton.org)
[A] a more accurate description would be to say that Bolivia and Venezuela are experiencing a resurgence of “corporatism.”Strongly associated with policies pursued by interwar fascist regimes, corporatism blends state-authoritarianism, populism, nationalism, and anti-foreign xenophobia. This is combined with extensive nationalization and regulation of the economy, the militarization of much of society, and the creation of state-controlled civil organizations that gradually suffocate any autonomous free associations.
In Latin America’s case, the most thorough-going attempt to implement corporatism occurred during Juan Perón’s first presidency of Argentina. Like Chavez, Perón came from a military background. An admirer of Mussolini, Perón rose to power on a wave of populism in 1946.
Perón’s subsequent policies were based on eliminating freedom of association and exchange, which were replaced by state-directed cooperation between state-manipulated businesses and state-dominated unions. Government control of economic and political life was enhanced by nationalization of key industries and expulsion of foreign firms and capital. The rhetoric of Perón’s regime was nationalistic, militaristic, and strongly anti-Western.
Sound familiar? The parallels between Perón’s corporatist agenda and the present policies of Morales and Chavez are uncanny.
Protectionism, militarization, xenophobia, nationalism....anti-NAFTA, close-the-borders Dubai ports, anti-anchor baby.... Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2006 9:16 PM
No more than a Leftist would move to the Soviet Union. People play these little games because they don't believe the U.S. would ever fall.....
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at May 10, 2006 10:20 PMIf the Church is par the course, they'll join in.
Posted by: Sandy P at May 10, 2006 11:38 PMIt is unbecoming of you to call people names with whom you disagree over a polical issue. Would you describe someone who is against counterfeit money as being anti-money or someone who is against gatecrashing at concerts anti-concertgoer?
Posted by: GER at May 10, 2006 11:42 PMNo, I call people who don't want Mexicans to immigrate here racists. Were it merely an issue of legality they'd endorse amnesty.
You oppose counterfeiters because you don't want the extra money flooding the syustem. You oppose gatehoppers because you don't want the extra people at the concert. You oppose immigration because you don't want the extra immigrants in your country.
Now, OJ, some of the people againest amnesty aren't racists, they feel that giving amnesty to people who skipped the insane bureaucracy wouldn't be 'fair'. Sublity different form of childisness.
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at May 11, 2006 12:38 AMYou list "militarism" and "nationalism" in your vitriolic rant there. Hey pot, leave that kettle alone.
The real point of this story is the striking similarity between state socialism and fascism, and how Latin America seems to be finding its way to the same sort of autocracy of the old rightist dictators under a different name. But what's a cogent point when there's a laughably tortured association to be made and epithets to hurl?
By the way, what do you call the 51% of native born Hispanics who support the House bill?
Dennis:
Nativists want to militarize the border and believe in Nationalism rather than patriotism.
The 51% are the next wave of nativists, just as this wave is the Irish and Italians we tried keeping out last time.
Posted by: oj at May 11, 2006 8:40 AMIf millions of Eastern Europeans suddenly began sailing to America, would opposition to their entry be 'racist'?
Hint - they aren't gypsies anymore.
Posted by: ratbert at May 11, 2006 9:32 AMrat:
Yes, it was when the last generation of nativists, like TR [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=16731890089874] , opposed them. Though they were open then about Slavs being an inferior race in those pre-Holocaust days.
Posted by: oj at May 11, 2006 9:37 AMSlavs are what?
Posted by: erp at May 11, 2006 2:43 PMArgentina was the second strongest enconomy in the world until the the Perons destroyed it decades ago.
Posted by: fk at May 12, 2006 2:32 AM