Essay on Chomsky’s report on Latin America Conference.

In this paper we would discuss the key points of Chomsky’s report on Latin America Conference.
In his report on democracy in Latin America Noam Chomsky outlines some key features of his concept of democracy. He stresses the point that Latin America has always lived “under the shadow of Northern Colossus” (Chomsky). Next he reminds that in South America the gap between the poor and the rich is enormous. In these countries more than 40% of population is living under the boundary of poverty. The taxes in the countries of Latin America are not so egalitarian as in the USA. To reinforce the wealth of the elite the ruling majority must skin the resources of the poor.
Further, he seems to regard Latin America as more democratic than the USA. He says: “we(in the USA) have an input every four years, the rest of the time ”“ shut up!” (Chomsky). In South America, in contrast, he says that people can influence politics all the time (one of this forms of influence, probably, are political riots). He stresses that in the USA there are the rich, the middle class, and the “criminal class”. There are no poor people.

Next he calls South America the “backyard” of the USA and compares the USA with a mafia don, controlling the elections in Latin America. Even the Latin American officers are trained in the USA.

From all mentioned above we can make a conclusion that Noam Chomsky regards the USA as a non-democratic state and is regarding the model of Latin America countries like Brazil and Argentina as more “fair” and closer to the democratic ideals of early American states. Chomsky’s idea is that the degree of democracy is to be measured by the degree of influence of people on politics and how well they are informed about key political issues.
Work Cited
Noam Chomsky on Latin American Conference at Sloan School of Management. Video report. 11 May 2008. Web. 27 July 2011.



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