Is Argentina An Illiberal Democracy?

[Noesdeayer]

In today's NYTimes (April 18,'15) Anand Guidharadas writes in the Letter from America section that "Innovation Isn't Making The World Equal" in which he states that Argentna and Iraq are " illiberal democracies" one characteristic of which,beside other debilities are weak institutons.Fareed Zakaria also mentioned the same problem in "Foreign Affaires" back in 1997. My question is, Why could Argentina's insituitions be considered weaker than her neighbors' e.g.Brazil and Chile and how could his be remedied? Any ideas?

 

[thorsten]

In general, weak institutions means that those are not actually independent. Unfortunately, this is a case here with many institutions, for example the INDEC or the central bank. I don't know how this compares to the ones in Brazil/Chile though.

 

[mc kenna]

I'm guessing the neighbors include the oposition in the decision making and they might have more of a state policy in place, unlike here, that everythng is political policy(no viva peron, no job for you!)

 

[camberiu]

I'm guessing the neighbors include the oposition in the decision making and they might have more of a state policy in place, unlike here, that everythng is political policy(no viva peron, no job for you!)

I think it is more complicated than that. First, although most of LATAM is more about people than about laws, Argentina in particular the personality cult is much stronger than anywhere else. So here more than anywhere, the laws take the backseat to charismatic leaders.

I can't speak of Chile, but Brazil's new (1988) Constitution did an outstanding job clearly defining fully separated and independence powers. Also, the Constitution put in place very clear and rigid rules on how employees from all branches of government are to be hired. Basically for any non-cabinet position to be filled, the only criteria for hiring is a battery exams that must be made public and available to any qualified candidate. And that exam, plus any background checks, are to be the only criteria for hiring. So, if you want to be a public prosecutor, you have to take an exam with tens of thousands of other aspiring candidates, and the highest scores are the ones who will be hired. These exams have to be publicly announced (newspapers, radio, etc...) so that any qualified candidate in the country can participate, and are conducted by an independent 3rd party and audited by an independent 4th party. The ones who get the highest score plus pass on the background tests are the ones to be hired, no if, ands or buts. That is the only way in, and politicians have no influence whatsoever in the process. This means that all public prosecutors, judges, inspectors, police chiefs, police agents , etc...got their jobs by passing an entirely objective exam while competing against thousands of others. There are no political appointees and political affiliates. That is why the police is arresting the leadership of the Worker's party left and right. They have no political affiliation. Many of them were nobodies who studied their asses off, passed the exam and became police agents, police chiefs, judges, prosecutors, comptrollers, auditors, etc...So they don't give a crap. They owe nothing to no one. They were not politically appointed, so they can't be politically fired.

I think that plays a HUGE difference on why the institutions in Brazil re working right now.

 

[Noesdeayer]

Everyone who has answered so far has a good idea of what makes fair and effective gov't. instiutions.Although,I know all 3 countries reasonably well, just for argument's sake,I'll take the opinions of Wikipedia and the Business Anti-Corruption Portal as yardsticks.
On corruption and an independent justice system :
ARGENTINA: Widespread corruption in the public sector and the extensve politicisation of the judiciary.
BRAZIL : In spite of a new Anti-Bribery Law in Jan.2014 corruption continues to create obstacles to doing business.Nonetheless,Brazil continues to pioneer L.A.in Affirmaitve Action legislation re: state agencies and publicly funded contracts The Affirmative Action University Law in 2012 is a definite achievement .Standardized testing.,as mentioned by Camberiu,constitutes a marked advance,The "vestibular " obligatory university entrance test did constiute a barrier for poor and black aspirants and modifcations were made to make university education available to all.
CHILE:The govt. generally respects in practice the constitutional provision for an independent judiciary.After,1990 and the return of democracy broad judicial reforms were innacted as a national response to the 17 year military dictatorship.These continue under the present president Michelle Bachalet wih a democratization of the education law and the election process.Chile is not mentioned in the L.A. section of the Business Anti-Corruption Portal.
Clearly,it would appear that public outcry,demand for change and particpation in their governnnts' decisión making brought about these needed changes.Luckily,evidence of this is now being seen in Argentina as well.