Test for Uruguayan Democracy

...Significantly, although the Communist party did poorly in last month's balloting-as usual-its extreme Left partner in the "Liberation Front" coalition, FIDEL, gained considerably...

...By voting for a single, strong president, it is hoped that the deadlock which prevented the executive from taking decisive action in the economic field will be broken...

...Thus the country's nearly three million citizens and especially the one million in the capital of Montevideo, have come to enjoy a standard of civil liberties, education, literacy, health and housing surpassing most, if not all, Latin American nations...

...The latest wave of military dictators have mastered Alliance for Progress rhetoric, and now give lip-service to democracy in public...

...Given the nature of Uruguay's export economy, much of President Gestido's ability to deal with the crisis will depend upon his capacity to obtain help from abroad...

...in private, however, they continue to argue that it is unsuited to their countries because the people ("they are like children") are incapable of deciding anything for themselves...

...Economically, however, it is at present suffering from the same problem that bedevils many of its neighbors- stagnation...

...There also has been a fantastic proliferation of government jobs, largely to buy a working majority in the Council and Congress on a few issues of moment...

...Mark Falcoff, a Regional Studies Fellow at Princeton, returned recently from a visit to Uruguay...

...During the years immediately following World War II this was a conceivable, if not particularly well-advised, policy in view of the gold and sterling reserves Uruguay had acquired during the War years...

...Shortage of foreign exchange and accompanying inflation, of course, have already brought down constitutional governments in nearby Argentina and Brazil...

...Moreover, the cost of living has continued to mount, while the government, in arrears in payment of salaries for the greater part of 1965, refused pay increases this year...

...The government has attempted to put an end to inefficiency and featherbedding in state-owned enterprises, but Congress has vetoed such measures...

...This last, was intended to permanently deliver Uruguay from personalist caudillos who could only be shot out of the presidential chair...

...In recent years both the Colorados and Blancos have split into almost irreconcilable factions that seem unable to resolve their differences except at election time...

...Whether or not they manage to pass the test is of significance to more than the country's three million inhabitants...

...The national deficit has in fact increased from 7 per cent of total government expenditures in 1960 to 24 per cent in 1964...

...For if their democracy collapses, there will be little reason to be optimistic about less developed, less politically mature Latin American countries...

...Today, "with an inelastic tax revenue and a low level of administrative efficiency and productivity in the various State-owned enterprises," the Bank of London and South America blandly reports, "the fiscal deficits have inevitably increased to a disquieting level...

...After gaining independence in 1830, it was plagued for more than 70 years with civil wars, coups d'etat, and all the comic-opera paraphernalia of 19th century Latin American politics...

...For over 50 years, the Uruguayans have shown a remarkable aptitude for representative institutions-and now their forebearance is being tested to the limit...

...Yet the fault is not all with the alleged avarice of workers and their representatives...

...Accordingly, Battle instituted a system centering around highly advanced social welfare measures, government monopoly in key industries and transport, separation of church and state, the right of collective bargaining, depoliticization of the Armed Forces, and most significantly, a collegial executive, the National Council of Administration (modelled on the Swiss Federal Council) to replace the President...

...They also elected a congress, disposed of their nine-man collegial executive, selected one of four new constitutions (all of which restored a single, strong executive), and elected Colorado Oscar Gestido, 67, a retired Air Force general, President of the country's "sixth republic...

...FIGHTING ECONOMIC STAGNATION Test for Uruguayan Democracy By Mark Falcoff Elections in Uruguay, South America's smallest republic, would hardly be of interest to outsiders if not for the increasing disuse of the ballot in many Latin American countries...

...The gorilas would probably argue that Uruguay is not a typical Latin American country...

...The victorious Colorados, who were deposed in the 1958 elections after almost a century in office, take command when the economic situation is at its worst in decades, and it may well be that a mere reshuffling of governmental powers will not be a panacea...

...Uruguay has managed to avoid such "solutions," turning instead to constitutional reform...

...for the nine-man Council to make a decision, old-fashioned American-style logrolling of the very first order has been required...

...The Uruguayans belied that assumption November 27...

...At first the Council attempted to meet the crisis by arresting some of the strike leaders, but it was unable to obtain enabling legislation from Congress to take appropriate "security measures" to deal with the paralysis...

...In an enormously complicated election-voters had to fill their ballots with at least a dozen choices from a battery of 209 separate lists available-they deposed the ruling, largely-rural based and conservative Blanco party, bypassed the Left-wing "Liberation Front," and returned the liberal, largely urban-based Colorado party to power...

...Depending upon exporting wheat, livestock, and related products for foreign exchange, it has been hard hit by the post-Korean War slump in commodity prices...

...Unemployment is high (estimated at between 15-25 per cent), and although Montevideo does not fester with shantytowns like those in Rio or Lima or Santiago, housing is short...

...The plural executive, combined with Uruguay's Byzantine system of proportional representation in Congress, have sometimes made a working majority difficult, if not impossible, to obtain even on important issues...

...The result has been work stoppages and protest strikes...

...In their view, the "strong hand" is the proper tool with which to meet Latin America's social and economic challenges of the '60s-and '70s as well...

...When the Colorados and Blancos agreed last spring on a constitutional referendum, the Council, caught between the Scylla of diminishing revenues and the Charybdis of rising costs and demands, must have felt like a criminal who receives a reprieve while mounting the gibbet...

...It was Jose Battle y Ordonez (1856-1929), a member of the Colorado party, and Uruguay's greatest President, who broke the vicious circle by winning a decisive victory against his opponents, the Blancos, in a civil war in 1903...

...Heavily influenced by European ideals of social democracy, he sought to unify the country's bifurcated society...

...In November 1965, a nine-day strike brought virtually all government work to a halt...

...At times it has even been known to vote pay increases to employes against Council directives, sometimes without authorizing resources to pay for them...

...It is now estimated that, as a result, the State is directly responsible for some 40 per cent of the total wages and salaries paid in the country, plus some extremely generous welfare benefits...

...Since 1946, Uruguay's accumulated balance of trade deficit has run to more than $500 million, although import restrictions and a crackdown on speculative foreign exchange practices have lately stopped the bleeding somewhat...

...If he fails to do so, nobody can predict the outcome...

...While this may be true, it was not always so...