CULTURE AND THE BEHAVIOR OF ELITES IN LATIN AMERICA

CULTURE AND THE BEHAVIOR OF ELITES IN LATIN AMERICA
Carlos Alberto Montaner

The author explains that Latin America can’t manage to achieve an economic and social development because of the elite who leads the countries. The author focuses his article on the politicians, the intellectuals, the left, the military, the businessmen and the clergy. They are leader groups who do not participate to the development of the country. But the author adds also that we can’t just blame them because they are also the mirror of their society, so we first have to change the society. In fact we can use the cultural and traditional behaviors in Latin America to explain the corruption, because the concept of loyalty in Latin America just exists in the friend and family circle and people prefer personal loyalty than merit, which is why the elite can be corrupted. As a conclusion we can say that it is the traditional culture values that had shaped the nowadays behaviors of the elites. For these reason we can explain why business people are in majority speculators, it is due to the feudal tradition which is very different with capitalism. As well, the French impact in Latin America had shape the intellectual’s way of thinking. It promotes a self-centred vision which does not participate to democracy and confidence in the future. The clergy can be also blamed as said the author because they promote values that can impact the prosperity of the society like discouraging people to consume or to make profit. We can also point out the role of history. Civil wars and dictatorships have led Latin America to think that the military has a role in politic and social justice. The author finish his article saying that traditional cultural values are guilty to keep Latin America in poverty but we can change the situation by under lighting the problems and trying to change the traditions.