Latin America: Democracy with Development

Issue Date October 2010
Volume 21
Issue 4
Page Numbers 5-12
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo analyzes two concurrent crises: 1) collapses in the U.S. housing and financial sectors that led to the global economic downturn; and 2) the rise of social discontent and institutional fragility in some Latin American countries. Toledo argues that these two failures are inversely related. In the first case, a lack of government regulation led to an economic crisis; in the second, a deficient distribution of economic prosperity has enabled the rise of several authoritarian governments. Toledo presents policy recommendations for preventing future economic and political crises, referring to the Social Agenda for Democracy in Latin America, a regional consensus authored by 20 former heads of state.

About the Author

Alejandro Toledo served as president of Peru from 2001 to 2006. He is currently president of the Global Center for Development and Democracy, and has held posts as a fellow or visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

View all work by Alejandro Toledo