Correa running out of capital

Carlos Alberto Montaner

President Rafael Correa wants to fix Ecuador. Swell. His compatriots elected him to do just that. And it's a good thing, too, because there are many things in his country that work clumsily. The most harmful, of course, is the disconcerting misery that afflicts half the population despite the nation's countless natural riches.

But that phenomenon seems to be the consequence, not the cause, of other deep-set ills. Ecuador's public sector is, in general, terribly inefficient. Justice is in chaos. Parliament is a disaster. The indexes of corruption are sky-high. Education and public health are scarce and of the lowest quality.

Under these circumstances, it should surprise nobody that most of the people are dissatisfied with the state of affairs, or with the ''thing'' they have for a government, and would like a forceful change. For that purpose, I repeat, to sweep the stables, they elected Correa.

The problem is that Correa has picked the wrong enemies, strategy and priorities. He has engaged in a fight to the death with legislators to force the writing of a new Constitution -- that Latin American mania about changing the rules instead of obeying them. Into the fray he has dragged the judiciary power, pitting judges against judges and judges against legislators, weakening to the point of agony the already fragile republican structure that remained standing.

Correa is like a person who enters a crumbling house filled with people and, instead of buttressing it so he can start fixing it, decides to demolish it with the people still inside so he can then build another house on the rubble. It is true that such an approach is (still) backed by a clear majority of the Ecuadorean people, but that support has a limited meaning. The majority seconds him because it believes that Correa is going to solve the country's problems. When they discover that in reality he's going to worsen those problems, frustration will turn into disenchantment.

Correa is an economist with degrees from the United States and Belgium. Surely he is mindful that the sustained development, prosperity and stability of nations depend on the volume and manner of linkage of the three capitals that determine the success or failure of societies: tangible, human and civic. That's something he learned on the first week of classes.

• Tangible capital consists of all the material factors -- facilities, land, machinery -- and the local or foreign investments that participate in the creation of goods and services produced by businesses. For societies to prosper, those businesses require a quiet environment and a mildly hospitable legal architecture to generate profits, create jobs, pay taxes and grow incessantly, reinvesting part of the earnings.

• Human capital. A well-educated population is necessary for tangible capital to bear fruit. Businesses must count on a good labor force, from janitor to managing director, with an adequate level of education so workers can perform their tasks well.
  The world's wealthiest societies almost always possess the largest human capital. The exception to that rule is the communist world, where a great mass of human capital decays because of the lack of freedom and private property.

• Civic capital comprises the values that prevail, the work ethic, the quality of institutions, the existence of a citizenry inclined to obey the law, the legitimacy of the public powers, the manner in which authority is conveyed and controlled and the existence of a climate of civic cordiality among political adversaries. They don't have to love one another, but they must tolerate and respect one another and accept the rules of the game.

Nothing that Correa is doing leads in that direction. Instead of resolving conflicts, he has engaged in creating them, closely following the harebrained Chavista model. He has taken the road of agitation. He has forgotten that the role of politicians is not to judge the press; quite the opposite. He has spurred the painful spectacle of mobs who seize the streets, while the police bars from Congress some legislators who were elected in the same elections that made Correa president.

It is sad to see Ecuadoreans lose another opportunity to act with common sense and prudence. Correa will bequeath to his countrymen a nation in a lot worse shape than when he received it. That counter-miracle seemed difficult to pull off.

April 03, 2007

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