‘A certain humility’: One small nation’s big lesson for democracies
Our writer crossed the river from Argentina into Uruguay to look into a narrative about a “better” brand of politics. She mostly found togetherness, stability, and a civility that serves a common good.
Imagine a political culture in which humility is often evident. Where there’s a prevailing sense that winning is less about beating the other side than about the bigger picture.
Uruguay is by no means problem-free. It struggles with issues around educational attainment and organized crime, says the Monitor’s Erika Page, who is currently on assignment in the region.
“But there’s something interesting, I think, in the way Uruguay operates when it comes to this sense of togetherness that I really didn’t see in the same way having lived in both Brazil and Argentina, these bigger neighbors,” she says on the Monitor podcast “Why We Wrote This.”
That approach manifests in some of the region’s lowest rates of poverty and inequality, she reported in a recent Monitor story.
Healthy disagreement matters here, as in any working democracy, Erika points out. So debates can grind on. Still, they tend to maintain an enviable level of civility that in some ways makes the country a model. “There’s a sense within politics that no one should lose out too badly,” Erika says, “no matter what the policy is going to end up being.”
Episode transcript
Clayton Collins: Latin America is a region that evokes a lot of historical, political imagery: of the dictatorships of the ’70s, of currency crises and extreme ideological battles. People who’ve been paying attention might have noticed more recent progress, including the rise in women leaders around the region, some steps toward human rights legislation, and even poverty reduction.
The Monitor’s Erika Page is now in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and she joins me today to talk about her recent report from neighboring Uruguay, a democratic success story by several measures. The country recently earned first place in the Americas on The Economist magazine’s Democracy Index for 2022, 13th in the world.
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Collins: This is “Why We Wrote This.” I’m Clay Collins. Welcome back, Erika!
Erika Page: Thanks for having me.
Collins: So, Erika, your story had plenty of caveats, but its headline positioned Uruguay as the “Goldilocks” of Latin American democracy. And we’ll get to why in a minute. But first, when you were here last time, we talked about Points of Progress, a franchise that’s near and dear to both of us. Did honing your skill as a progress-watcher set you up for your current role, and maybe even for reporting this story?
Page: Definitely. I think working on Points of Progress primed me to look for the places where things are going right, perhaps in unexpected ways. And then to really try and figure out the nuance within those stories. And so when I first got to Buenos Aires, you know, [and] Argentina’s in the midst of this dramatic economic crisis, and I began to hear in passing how much better everything is going in neighboring Uruguay, I was curious both why and to what extent that narrative holds up in reality on the other side of the river.
Collins: Hmm. We had an exchange recently about Brazil’s landless movement, which you’ve studied, and the kind of leftist audacity there in terms of people claiming and working land that’s owned, but left idle. And you recently wrote about the elections in Paraguay, which were of course won by the right. And you gave that story some global context by looking at multilateral economic cooperation. And what you found in Uruguay was something, as you say, characterized more by balance, kind of the opposite of extremes.
Page: Right. And I, I don’t think that the story of Uruguay is a story of this problem-free utopia. The country is really struggling with things like educational attainment and organized crime. But there’s something interesting, I think, in the way Uruguay operates when it comes to this sense of togetherness that I really didn’t see in the same way having lived in both Brazil and Argentina, these bigger neighbors. Some of that has to do with economic and political systems. There’s some of the lowest rates of poverty and inequality in the region, and there’s kind of a wide social consensus that social equality is worth upholding. You know, in Spanish they say “nadie es mas que nadie,” that no one is more important than anyone else. And there’s a certain tendency toward moderation, civility, and that balance that you’re talking about.
Collins: On the political roots, um, an economic historian in Montevideo told you: “There’s a rejection of any politician looking to profit from extreme polarization. That means finding balance.” So much easier said than done. Right?
Page: It is, yeah. And I don’t think that balance in Uruguay means that you just meet in the middle every time, and that’s that. It really means very lively political debate. That same economic historian was adamant that without healthy disagreement in politics, you actually don’t have a democracy at all. And so politics can be notoriously slow in Uruguay. But there is a sense that in politics, just as in social activism, the main goal is not about squashing the other side with your own argument. It’s not about getting caught up in personal attacks, but to focus on the larger picture at hand, the common good. And there’s a sense within politics that no one should lose out too badly no matter what the policy is going to end up being.
Collins: Common good is obviously a high goal, but societies tend to stratify. And perhaps, especially when more people are drawn in from other places. So Uruguay will need to pass that test too. Has the country peaked in some ways, or is there more that it can do to keep from getting stagnant?
Page: Yeah, I think it’s really important to differentiate between stability and stagnation. I do think that Uruguay has a really strong cultural and economic foundation that can maybe prevent some of that polarization and stratification. But there’s also a sense that Uruguay can actually be raising its bar higher. You know, there’s a joke in Uruguay that Argentina, for example, only exists to make Uruguayans feel better about themselves. And so some of the people I spoke with were saying Uruguay doesn’t do itself much of a favor by comparing itself to some of the countries that are dealing with really difficult economic and political problems. And I think Uruguay is in a pretty interesting position right now to act as a model, not just regionally, but also worldwide, considering the role that balance and moderation have played in its economic, political, and, even environmental systems. Uruguay is one of the few places that is closest to achieving a reasonable standard of living for its population with a carbon footprint that most developed nations would find enviable. And I think that’s the kind of narrative that can have power on a global scale, even in a small place like Uruguay.
Collins: Hmm. We’re talking about Uruguay in relation to other countries and how things are going. The government is reforming the retirement system, raising the age from 60 to 65. Unlike in France, nothing seems to be on fire. Is that another indicator of a very conciliatory culture?
Page: Yeah, I was surprised watching those protests against the retirement reform legislation that the protestors weren’t naming names in their speeches. They weren’t calling out the current president or his party. And I asked one of the union workers protesting about that. And he said that was normal. There’s this understanding that politicians are temporary government representatives who are not to be attacked personally. The focus should be on how any policy moves are going to affect the population at large. And I think that political culture requires a certain humility, which politicians who do well in Uruguay tend to embody. There just isn’t oxygen in the political atmosphere for politicians with extreme discourse.
Um, I did some reporting in the working class neighborhood of Cerro. And everyone I spoke to there said: “Oh, just, drive 10 minutes, and you can go talk to the former beloved President [José] “Pepe” Mujica, because his farm is right there, the farm that he spent his presidency living on. And you know, surely he’s gonna talk to you – because he talks to everyone.” Those are the types of qualities that Uruguayans are looking for in their leaders.
Collins: That sounds wonderful, and transferrable, ideally. Thanks for being here, Erika, and for being there in Buenos Aires, and for your work around the region.
Page: Thank you, Clay!
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Collins: Thanks for listening. You can find our show notes with a link to the story you just heard discussed at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. Also find links to more of Erika’s work, including her recent piece on the joyous, unifying percussive sounds of Afro-Uruguayan candombe. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, produced by Jingnan Peng. Alyssa Britton and Tim Malone were our engineers, with original music by Noel Flatt. Produced by the Christian Science Monitor. Copyright 2023.
