Tra innovazioni e continuità. L'America latina nel nuovo millennio. Atti della giornata di studi sull'America Latina. Padova, 5 marzo 2008

The volume collects the the revised papers presented at the symposium “L'America Latina nel nuovo millennio: un cantiere aperto, tra innovazioni e continuità”, organized by the editor of the volume itself and held on March 5, 2008, at the University of Padua. The essays examines aspects of political, economic, and social conditions in Latin America, starting from the preliminary assumption that, at the beginning of the new millennium, the whole region offers a multifaceted situation that is shaped by relevant political and economic novelties along with the resurgence or the survival of old problems. The latter include the reappearance of populist temptations, the continued existence of an almost endemic violence in a few areas, and the persistence of significant economic and social inequalities notwithstanding remarkable progress. Several contributors emphasize, for instance, the need for the equalization of taxes as for both collection and redistribution of resources. Among novelties, particular interest has the changing pattern in foreign relations with the United States of America, Europe, other “emergent” countries. The authors of the essays are (in alphabetic order): E. Calandri, M. Carmagnani, R. Da Rin, D. Grassi, M. Del Pero, A. Mori, and L. Zanatta. The essays are supplemented by comments by L. Asta, S. Luconi, G. Orcalli, and A. Varsori. In the introductory essay the editor stresses the fact that, after the years of military dictatorships and the beginning of processes of re-democratization that both the outburst of the debt crisis and the subsequent adjustment policies made rather troublesome, the whole region has undergone a phase of greater political stability that has made it possible the resort to elections as the main instrument to designate the heads of state and prime ministers. Against this backdrop, the year 2006 stood out as particularly revealing because it witnessed the rise to power on the part of personalities that can be defined as “innovators.” In this respect, conventional wisdom has it that Latin America “turned Left,” a generic expression overlooking the remarkable differences among the single countries.