South America is changing before our eyes. A continent that was once known for centralized, top-down governments is quickly moving away from its past. Venezuela, formerly the international poster child for leftist economics, is a case in point. Ten of Venezuela’s fellow Latin American nations, including regional powers Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, recently staked out positions against the socialist Nicolas Maduro government, a turn of events that would have been unthinkable a decade ago during former President Hugo Chavez’s heyday.
Perhaps coincidentally, this January in Chile, the Instituto de Estudios de la Sociedad published a translation of The Federalist Papers, only the second time in history that those important founding ideas of the United States were translated into Spanish. Perhaps these two seemingly-unrelated events signify a renewed interest in reforms that limit government power and can bring prosperity to the continent.
