Two recent articles about Chile

The Economist, the influential though very liberal magazine, has recently published two articles about Chile.

The first one is devoted to analyze the sociopolitical context of the next presidential election expected by mid-December this year, with a most likely run-off to be held in January. The article is quite complete and thorough, but has some foults worth to be amended. First of all, the fact that Enriquez is a charismatic figure doesn't mean that there was a failure to hold a national primary at the Concertacion. That is just not true, or at least incomplete. The fact was that there was a primary, rules for it were set and two candidates show off for the match: Frei and Gomez, from the Radical Party. Gomez lost, admitted his deffeat and its working for Frei's candidacy. Second, it is also not true that Senator Frei "espouse many of his opponents’ arguments, such as the need for political reform, changes to the labour code and modernisation of the state", because the fact is that the former chilean president has proposed this kind of reforms in the past. He even tried to introduce a large constitutional amendement last year, but failed by the right wing opposition to reform the Constitution in its main aspects.

The second article is much more simple and straightforward, but much accurate I would say. It evaluates the causes and reasons for Ms. Bachelet, Chile's president, huge popularity. The articles points out at both her closeness and empathy with people's lives and problems, and its economic and social policy, aimed at build a kind of protection and security net for the poorer.

Both articles complement perfectly giving a good perspective on Chile's past four years and the next election which, by any result, would mark an end point to "politics as usual" in the Concertacion and, I like to think, would mark a renewal of the political elite.

New report on political participation in America

A new report bt the Pew Internet and American Life Project has been lunched recently. The report, headed by famous professors Verba, Schlozman and Brady (yes! the same of "The Civic Culture"), can be downloaded from here.
An article from the Atlantic magazine, shows some of its main conclusion, basically emphatizing that the myth of an increase and more equal access to the political sphere provided by the accesability and simplicity of the internet, it is just that, a myth. However, the same article points out that among web political users, the educational differences commonly seen in offline political participation (the better-educated participate more and in a more effective way than the less-educated) is no so sharped.

Good news for Britain, but don't be too optimistic

A recent article from The Guardian, the british newspaper, reported that the National Institute for Social and Economic Research, a respected think tank, has anounced that the United Kingdom may grow by 0.2% from last August. This assumption cames from the fact that British industry has experience a slow but significant increase last month, according to official statistic lunched recently.

This will mean that, from the final quarter of this year, the UK may join other countries that have leave out the recession, specially the BRIC and other emerging economies. This is a very good news, since the UK has seen a hug jump on its unemployment figures and a decrease in its growing paths. However, equal to another cases, sustainable grow is not likle to occur, giving space to a period of low growth and hig rates of unemployment, kind of a gray and shadow time for the economy and for social policy.