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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 August 2009
The “left” in Latin America committed many sins. … But it kept the issue of poverty on everyone's mind, and it held out a dream of a more egalitarian society, where basic needs were met. Maybe it even served as a check on the most blatant displays of consumerism. It was noisy and persistent. But now the left has all but vanished, having been swallowed by electoral politics, consumerism, and nihilism. There is no one “stirring things up,” asking hard questions about state and society. The social Christian political parties have in the past committed themselves to many of the same ends (via different means), but they seem now to have strayed from their mission. Today they, too, are “at the mall.”
– Forrest Colburn in Latin America at the End of Politics (2002, 65)Consumers need to be citizens, too.
– Julio María Sanguinetti, Uruguayan president (1985–1990, 1995–2000) (Colburn 2002, 37)The economic and attitudinal trends of Latin America described throughout this book are akin to portrayals of the world economy's “McDonaldization” or “Wal-martization” (Ritzer 1996). The lower political and physical barriers to international exchange have diminished labor's bargaining power, decimating trade unions and making employment more precarious. At the same time, globalization has dramatically decreased the costs of consumer goods. Consumers have thus gone shopping, more lured by the consumption benefits of globalization than repelled by the labor-market damage. The allure of consumption is the engine of globalization.
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