MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (Reuters) - Uruguay's left celebrated its first presidential victory into the wee hours Monday while partial election returns indicated Tabare Vazquez would win and his main challengers conceded on exit poll results. With half of the votes tallied, the charismatic 64-year-old doctor was just short of the 50 percent needed to win in first-round balloting Sunday. But he should surpass that level when more votes come in from the capital Montevideo, his stronghold and home to half of the country's voters. Backed by encouraging exit polls and projections, Vazquez declared himself winner a few hours after compulsory voting ended in the nation of 3.4 million. "We will begin to work in the morning on the political transition because there is no time to lose," Vazquez told supporters who embraced his platform of wider distribution of wealth and social justice in the aftermath of Uruguay's worst economic crisis. By electing Vazquez, Uruguay joins the ranks of South American nations -- Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela -- which have chosen left-leaning leaders on platforms of poverty alleviation after a decade of U.S.-backed free-market policies that often ended in economic chaos... ..."I think this is the beginning of a cycle of the left in power for 10 years or more," said political scientist Gustavo de Armas... An opportunity lost to employ the vision to step fully outside the left-right failed continuum, and thus avoid the stifling oscillation between futile, anti-solution oriented mini-paradigms withing the failed, larger one. Our choice of government, and our rationale behind it, must begin to hinge upon different fulcrums than the ones that establish these ism that exist within this two-dimensional, "left-right" framework. Choosing justice is the greatest of all-too-few goods out of this paradigm, however; thus, within it, this election must be seen as some level of victory for those interested in the reality of society as being comprised of self AND other, the "good" society maximizing the potential of both.
Ah f--k, sorry....here it is: http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6672010
Mel, I find your comments provocative, but they left me wondering, what governmental and economic systems most-closely represent your ideal, and which countries most-closely employ them?
At the risk of generalizing, I'd merge the EU notions of freedom with the US notions of personal accountability, I'd take a good long look at Article 2 of the Swedish "Instrument of Government": Public power shall be exercised with respect for the equal worth of all and the liberty and dignity of the private person. The personal, economic and cultural welfare of the private person shall be fundamental aims of public activity. In particular, it shall be incumbent upon the public institutions to secure the right to health, employment, housing and education, and to promote social care and social security. The public institutions shall promote sustainable development leading to a good environment for present and future generations... I'd demonstrate the permanent, codified contrition of the South African Preamble: We, the people...Recognise the injustices of our past; Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to - Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights... I'd acknowledge that there are millions - if not billions - of humans who, if given the option, are willing to consider PARECON, Fotopoulos' "Inclusive Democracy," Spehr's "Free Cooperation," Folbre's "Caring Labour" concepts, and all kinds of reciprocity models that reward GIVING instead of taking that harken back to Trobriand kula exchange and beyond. So, to answer your question more directly, the system - disparate, distributed and separated by ism, ology, and national/int'l politics - both exists and does not exist. It exists in separate pieces around the globe, but certainly has not been implemented. I guess, more than anything, I'm grounded in the notion that our current reality is proof enough that the current ism/ologies are not descriptive enough/compelling enough to promote enough love/reason/belief on enough days among enough people to perpetuate, even in an evolving sense. BUT...I'd actually like to get back to Uruguay, and what this might mean for that nation.
I would have to agree that Sweden, which has had a democratic socialist government since about 1917 established under Hjalmar Branting, was a good example to many in South America and elsewhere. http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1921/branting-bio.html http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sw.html 'Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits.'
Eduardo Galeano, author of the great, GREAT "Soccer in Sun and Shadow," shares this: A few days before the election of the President of the planet in North America, in South America elections and a plebiscite were held in a little-known, almost secret country called Uruguay. In these elections, for the first time in the country's history, the left won. And in the plebiscite, for the first time in world history, the privatization of water was rejected by popular vote, asserting that water is the right of all people. * * * The movement headed by President-elect Tabare Vazquez ended the monopoly of the two traditional parties--the Blanco and the Colorado parties--which governed Uruguay since the creation of the universe. And after each election you would hear this exclamation: ''I thought that we Blancos won but it turns out we Colorados did"--or the other way around. Out of opportunism, yes, but also because after so many years of ruling together, the two parties had fused into one, disguised as two. Tired of being cheated, this time the people made use of that little-used instrument, common sense...