Alberto Vergara offers a refreshing and original perspective on the governance dilemmas facing contemporary Latin America. Repúblicas defraudadas is a work neither of abstract political theory nor of academic intellectual history but of engagé reflection on the idea of the republic, why contemporary Latin American republics ‘are not very republican’ (p. 230), and how the region can benefit from rescuing its republican traditions.
Chapter 1 links the explosive social protests (estallidos) that have rocked the region in recent years to discontent with ‘incomplete republics’ in which citizens feel governments rule on behalf of the rich, powerful and corrupt. But what is a republic? ‘Self-government’, writes Vergara, ‘constitutes the heart of republicanism’ (p. 31). As the antinomy of monarchy or despotism, the republic, as an ideal and a way of life, is ‘a theory and practice of liberty’ (p. 31); not liberty understood merely as individual freedom to do as one pleases in the private sphere, but the liberty of ‘autonomous and responsible citizens’ to be sovereigns over their own lives because they are equal participants in the collective life of their community (p. 34). Crucially, this invests the individual in the common weal – the res publica. Only as participants in the public sphere can citizens achieve the full extent of their freedom and possibilities for development. To enjoy this liberty, the republic needs republican citizens, republican society and republican government. The next three chapters explore these dimensions.
In Chapter 2, Vergara shows how individual autonomy and moral agency are constrained by everyday social roles and hierarchies and confined by private habits and routines that deny citizens the rights or the opportunities to do and be what they need to live fully human lives. Lacking the opportunity to cultivate judgment, discernment and moral decision-making, they are ill-prepared for democratic citizenship. Chapter 3, ‘La República-en-tanto-sociedad’, widens the aperture of Vergara’s analysis, focusing on how inequality – not just wealth and income inequality, but also racial discrimination, geographical segregation and unequal access to public spaces and security – hinders the development of egalitarian social relationships (p. 83). The longest and most complex essay, Chapter 4, ‘La República-en-tanto-gobierno’, examines the corruption arising from ‘incompetent capitalism’ and its dependence on weak and patrimonial states. Weak states are not only unable to supply public goods – like citizen security, education, public health – they are unable to attenuate inequalities and create conditions for dynamic and competitive capitalism.
The final chapter outlines a reformist, incrementalist approach that embraces pluralism, not polarisation, and offers a corrective to classical liberalism as well as left-wing utopianism (p. 235). Rejecting the economism of laissez-faire liberalism, Vergara calls for a ‘popular republicanism’ (p. 236) to ‘reincorporate a concern for the public, citizens’ power, and the general interest’, strengthening the state without weakening individual guarantees (pp. 235–6). He notes that there may be more regional consensus around the republic than democracy.
Repúblicas defraudadas is not written specifically for political scientists – or, indeed, academics in general. In fact, Vergara argues that the concept of the republic can integrate the domains that academics typically divide into political science, economics, history and sociology (p. 26). He draws on Guillermo O’Donnell, who recognised that contemporary Latin American political regimes synthesise democratic, republican and liberal traditions, often in ways more democratic than liberal or republican.
Vergara’s republicanism is staunchly liberal. He quotes with approval Maurizio Viroli’s image of liberalism and democracy as ‘provinces’ of republicanism (p. 30). Although he occasionally draws on republican thought as a corrective to certain variants of liberalism, he has no truck or trade with illiberal projects – whether radical left-wing projects to re-found republics or populist assaults on institutions (p. 42). With regard to democracy, Vergara criticises political scientists for their excessive attention to democracy narrowly construed (p. 28).
The book is already generating lively debate, some of which I hope will address aspects of republican thought that are in tension with liberalism, like its emphasis on civic virtue and character. A republican cannot be indifferent to the question of what habits and practices build the character and judgment required for democratic citizenship. Vergara recognises the critical importance of education in the formation of republican citizens but stops short of advocating character education (pp. 180–98). Objections to the idea that schools should inculcate republican values may come both from the value relativism of positivists and the value pluralism of liberals, but it is a debate worth having.
I also hope the book feeds into debates on constitutionalism and the exercise of constituent power, which are among the more radical, even revolutionary, features of liberal thought. Here republicanism offers a crucial balance for both democracy and liberalism. The separation of powers may be part of a liberal ‘obsession’ with dividing power (p. 210) but it is also a quintessentially republican institution designed to ensure popular sovereignty is achieved without degenerating into despotism or Caesarism. In this sense, republicanism, by providing the architecture of self-government, is a province of democracy.
Finally, although there isn’t a chapter on ‘La república-en-tanto-modelo-de-desarrollo’, much of Chapter 4 focuses on the problem of ‘incompetent capitalism’ – the kind of uncompetitive and unregulated capitalism symbolised by the corruption of Odebrecht, in which plunder and influence rather than innovation are the route to wealth, and most workers are consigned to eke out an existence in the informal economy. Vergara is highly critical of the lack of competition in Latin American economies, but this does not place him outside the mainstream of economic analysis in institutions like the World Bank. Thus, an opportunity is lost to use republican thought as a corrective to the technocratic-managerial style of government promoted by the advocates of neoliberal globalisation which has fostered competition at the expense of the common good.
Vergara’s book will not be the last word on republicanism in Latin America, but it is a great point of departure for an urgent conversation – all the more so given the crisis of the republic in the most powerful country in the Americas today.
