A Talk with Costa Rica's Ex-President
COLBURN, FORREST D.
The Perils of Magical Realism A Talk with Costa Rica's Ex-President By Forrest D. Colburn Escazú DURING THE 1980s democracy unexpectedly blossomed in Latin America. Country...
...Decision-making is very complicated, because so many political actors and so many individual interests are involved...
...In the end, I left office feeling content that much was accomplished...
...In the face of the resistance to my proposed economic reforms, I did what I believe is always desirable in such circumstances: I defended the institutions of democracy, including the rights of the opposition, and looked for second-best solutions...
...Rodriguez: Populism...
...But I encountered a ferocious and debilitating opposition...
...When I was president I could get in my car on the weekend and drive anywhere, with no security personnel...
...You are known in Costa Rica as a businessman...
...Perhaps at the outset populist measures stimulate the economy, but they quickly generate inflation and, worse, derail incentives to produce...
...Both journalists and academics are too critical of Latin America's incipient democracies...
...There are many other indicators, too, that suggest improved governance...
...Don Fernando said he would establish a fund for the pruning of the trees...
...The third time it was introduced by the opposition, with only minor revisions, and it passed...
...Likewise, as president I spent a lot of time on the details of many issues...
...Annoyed by the heat, he asked the railroad's directors why they didn't plant trees along the tracks to offer shade...
...Don Fernando said he would pay for the planting of trees...
...I did all I could within the political limitations I faced...
...But initial impressions are often deceptive, I was reminded as we chatted in Spanish in the library of his home in Escazu-he between sips of a double espresso and I while nursing a chilled drink made from a local fruit called cas...
...Also, Costa Rica has always made extensive investments in social services, education and health that have contributed to maintaining social equality and a devotion to democracy...
...I take pride in the decline in traffic fatalities, which I feel can be traced to the heightened performance of a number of public agencies...
...Patience is needed...
...Dreamy, unsustainable economic policies lead, in the end, to more poverty...
...There is only the perfection of democracy and its skillful application to the resolution of problems...
...Democracy is only a system for decision-making...
...Colburn: How would you describe your governing style...
...The social indicators of Costa Rica are impressive, at times matching or even surpassing those of the United States...
...Everybody who is elected brings to the office his or her own governing style...
...Who, in fact, knows for certain what is the best decision...
...After that second defeat I played a decisive role in drafting the 'Social Christian Letter to Costa Rica,' a monumental report on the condition of the country...
...It guarantees that debate can alter or reverse decisions, and that minorities have a chance to become majorities...
...Rodriguez: No...
...salaries are to be raised immediately...
...Or, perhaps better put, what style of governing was possible...
...This limitation is sensible...
...Moreover, democracy has to be constructed with the material at hand...
...It is not...
...That initial enthusiasm, however, has waned...
...Political parties come and go...
...For most of its history Costa Rica has had more than two political parties...
...keep it out of politics...
...But democracy does not give anyone, including the president, the right to impose his views on the country...
...Colburn: What are your feelings about the status of democracy in Latin America generally...
...I learned a lot from this kind of work, right down to the number of schools, hospitals and penitentiaries we lacked...
...Too much is expected of democracy in Latin America...
...Noticeably absent from armchair analyses are the voices of "the democrats " themselves...
...We need to leave magical realism to literature...
...I was convinced that these policies would increase foreign investment here in such fields as energy and telecommunications, and that the proceeds from privatization would enable us to pay off the country's burdensome internal debt and wipe out the continuing fiscal deficit, much of which stems from interest paymerits on the debt...
...Rodriguez: I learned to be humble and to recognize what I do not know...
...I first dreamed of being president when I was five or six years old...
...We do not have the American celebration of success...
...Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions to what are, in fact, trenchant issues...
...There is another cost to populism too...
...Colburn: You have a PhD in economics from the University of California at Berkeley...
...In whatever kind of work we do we are limited...
...Colburn: Thank you...
...Although his intelligence is quickly evident, his demeanor is more that of a professor...
...In a democracy, even in a country as small as Costa Rica, the arena is far more complex...
...Colburn: Like your predecessor, José Maria Figueres, you are said to have left office without accomplishing what you believed needed to be done to strengthen Costa Rica...
...An estimated 20,000 Costa Ricans participated in the study...
...Promises abound: We will all be rich...
...What happened...
...The directors said no, they would not have money for the care of them...
...As part of my 1998 campaign, I took the lead in drafting our party's very comprehensive platform...
...As a young man I participated actively in developing the political program of the Social Christian Unity Party...
...There are no manuals...
...Costa Rica has deep democratic roots, dating back at least to the 18th century...
...Is Costa Rica becoming politically, as one local intellectual recently lamented, 'an ordinary Latin American country...
...I ran for the presidency in 1990 and lost...
...People would recognize me and be kind, but I was considered just another Costa Rican...
...So when I won the '98 election I knew the country intimately and had a detailed view of what needed to be done in order to move it forward...
...How come the region has both talented statesmen like Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and others best described as 'gangsters,' to draw on an English word commonly used in the region...
...Costa Ricans do not accept that anyone is superior...
...Costa Rica ranks sixth in the world in the percentage of women who serve in the national legislature...
...Much that is written about this today consists of sweeping generalities, or toys with a generic variable of democracy...
...In business you usually are concerned with a few products, and the financial results are still not certain...
...For example...
...the state will do more for you...
...Generals have remained in the barracks, but Argentina's economic debacle, Colombia's violence, Venezuela's division over its plebeian president, and uncertainty about Brazil's future have contributed to an uneasy sense that democracy's fit with the region may be problematic...
...Rodriguez: I feel I was prepared for the presidency, and that I assumed office with a well-defined agenda...
...The possible end to Costa Rica's two party system is similarly irrelevant...
...The directors replied that they had no money...
...For one thing, my party did not have a majority in Congress...
...The frees were never planted...
...The directors said no, because they suspected he was planning to somehow profit from his gesture...
...At first, the 62-year-old Rodriguez does not strike you as presidential...
...With Congress, though, I learned from the clash over state monopolies and privatization to be wary of public battles...
...It does not guarantee that the best-the most appropriate-steps will be taken...
...Colburn: Why...
...You surely learned something from both experiences...
...Yet economic development is all of these things and more...
...Forrest D. Colburn is a longtime contributor to the NL whose most recent bookis Latin America at the End of Politics...
...I maintained a close relationship with Cabinet ministers, meeting with each of them once a week, and attempted to make them and their bureaucracies accountable...
...Politicians-including presidentsare treated with respect and even affection, but this is a country of igualados (egalitarians...
...Criticism of politicians, even stinging criticism, is not an indictment of democracy...
...In May he completed a four-year term as president of Costa Rica, arguably the region's most successful democracy...
...But perhaps most disturbing is that the country's two party system, held by many to be a pillar of political stability, seems to be collapsing...
...Rodriguez: Many countries in Latin America have been democracies for a mere 20 years...
...Rodriguez: No one teaches you how to be president...
...Political disillusionment and fatigue are its inevitable result...
...Furthermore, the most complicated problems in Latin America are not political or economic, they are, ultimately, social problems...
...We prefer to be loved-or likedrather than successful...
...For another, although the majority of Costa Ricans voted for me, they did not, in fact, support my specific proposals to end state monopolies and to privatize state assets...
...When authoritarian governments held sway, people built up unrealistic hopes for democracy...
...promote human capital-spend more on education...
...If I wanted to go to the movies, I waited in line like everyone else...
...Their number is not a reflection of a country's commitment to democracy...
...Rodriguez: It is magical realism lifted from the pages of Latin America's celebrated novels and thrust into politics...
...It is counterproductive to say, 'Here I am, muy macho' because the opposition then takes a confrontational stance to bolster its public standing...
...The desire for inclusive economic advancement is persistent, and singleminded proposals abound: Foreign investment is the panacea...
...The participation of women in politics is suggestive, too, of a broad commitment to social equality...
...it is representative of society...
...The country's poverty and marginal status contributed to its having less social inequality than elsewhere in Latin America...
...Quiet lobbying works best...
...But it cannot in and of itself resolve problems...
...Presidents in Costa Rica, who are restricted to one term, never seem to leave office with much popularity, and you were not an exception...
...Indeed, people become disgusted-and angry-with not just one politician but more likely with all politicians, and possibly with democracy itself...
...Some in Costa Rica feel our Congress should be a club of saints...
...My tax reform bill was voted down twice in Congress...
...State energy and telecommunications enterprises, for example, were encouraged to make new investments in technology to increase their contribution to the country's economic growth...
...I believe the Costa Rican state became more responsive-more efficient-during my tenure...
...There is a story of a wealthy Costa Rican, Fernando Castro, who in the 1930s had a ranch in the northwest of the country that bordered the tracks of the national railroad...
...Colburn: Do you worry about the apparent deterioration of the public's trust in political institutions...
...When I was a businessman I always tried to know more than my managers, and that had me working many more hours than necessary...
...I ran again in 1994 and lost...
...To at least partially redress the balance, I sought out one of Latin America's most thoughtful and articulate politicians, Miguel Ángel Rodriguez...
...Country after country celebrated the replacement of authoritarian ride-usually military-with a constitutional government, competitive party politics and civilian supremacy...
...The same holds for Latin American presidents...
...They all represent some aspect of their society...
...It does not automatically mean an end to poverty or the triumph of justice...
...the unemployed will find work...
...eliminate inflation and remove trade barriers...
...It is hard to imagine this soft-spoken man with rimless glasses stirring up a crowd in some provincial village on a sweltering afternoon...
...Is the country suffering from, as some say, 'political paralysis...
...Some theories of how to achieve it sound like a tautology: To spur economic development you must have all the characteristics of a prosperous, wellgoverned country...
...Frequently the road to take is not clear...
...The region's problems are the consequence of a long, troubled history...
...I entered office, however, with several handicaps...
...Accomplished scholars have knowledge largely confined to one academic discipline, perhaps to a single aspect of that discipline...
...What did you learn from serving as president of one of Latin America's most admired democracies...
...There is no alternative to democracy...
...Even better is letting the opposition co-opt your policy prescriptions and present them as their own...
...I had what was probably a defect-an obsession with details...
...strengthen the rule of law...
...I have always been optimistic about Costa Rica, and I am optimistic today...
...To address the country's debt and fiscal deficit, taxes were revamped...
...Don Fernando took the train to and from his ranch...
...Colburn: What is the greatest threat to democracy in Latin America...
...If someone is perceived to be acting superior we say, 'the floor needs to be lowered'-and there are many ways to do that, including with satire and ridicule...
Vol. 85 • September 2002 • No. 5
