EDITORIAL

An opinion article in Nacion.com accurately reviews the degradation of Costa Rica's political and economic work, and says "clientelism, corporatism, nepotism, cronyism, influence peddling, conflict of interest, crony capitalism" are the current characteristics of Costa Rican society.

As noted in the editorial, this is not a new problem, and we would add that it is not unique to Costa Rica, but it seems to be a virus which is affecting democracies globally, but especially those in Latin America, with special emphasis on those nations characterized by having achieved high levels of quality in the practice of democracy, which in turn translates into relatively high levels of social development and income distribution.  We are talking specifically about Uruguay and Costa Rica, although the phenomenon is also growing in other nations.

In these countries there seems to be a direct cause - effect relation between the process of achieving the benefits of democratic practices - relative economic development, social welfare, equal opportunities, social mobility - with the subsequent degradation of these benefits and the alteration of democratic practices, now distorted by corporatism which appropriates power and makes decisions exclusively in the interests of its members,  transferring wealth -arbitrarily and unfairly- from productive sectors to groups of rentiers.

"...Specific examples of profiteering abound in Costa Rica: from unions demanding higher wages, youth pensions, ever fatter yearly bonuses and other privileges in exchange for fewer hours of work or refusal to submit to examination of their performance, even export companies who press for an artificial exchange rate that allows them to get more colones when selling their produce, lobbying for privileges in the form of protective tariffs or quasi-monopolistic arrangements for their markets, or bus drivers who threaten to hold a national strike to prevent approval of a tariff methodology that could correct errors that are in force. "

It is clear that profiteering is gathering pace  "... when traders find a government receptive to their demands and one that acts to allow the transfer of resources (wealth) from citizens - users and consumers of goods and services- to lobbyists, whether they be unions or businesses. "

The editorial in Nacion.com points out the many cases in Costa Rica which lead to the transfer of wealth to corporations, through quasi monopolies, tariff protections, subsidies, or abusive labor conventions or professional tariffs.

How certain is the quality of a democracy where in practice decisions are made or enforced by corporations and the power groups, not by the representatives elected by citizens?

Source: CentralAmericaData.COM

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