From Brazil to El Salvador, from Uruguay to Ecuador, from Chile to Venezuela, left-of-center or hard-left parties and leaders have recently been voted into office. Some of these have performed splendidly (Chile, Brazil and Uruguay); others, so-so (Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador); while others are making a mess of things (Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and, as always, Cuba).
But there is a new wave emerging, one that is as welcome as the appearance of a modern, moderate, market-oriented democratic and globalized center-left. That is a democratic, socially concerned center-right whose policies can often be mistaken for those of the center-left. The two best examples of sitting governments in this regard are in Chile and Colombia. How they differ from each other is leadership. Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia runs a still partly dysfunctional country — magnificently. Sebastián Piñera of Chile runs a country that operates like clockwork — mediocrely. More
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