What if Latin America Ruled the World? How the South Will Take the North Through the 21st Century.

• Author: Lozano, Andrea
• Position: FURTHER READING - Book review

WHAT IF LATIN AMERICA RULED THE WORLD? HOW THE SOUTH WILL TAKE THE NORTH THROUGH THE 21ST CENTURY

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera

(New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010), 472 pages.

In What if Latin America Ruled the World? Oscar Guardiola-Rivera of the University of London argues that the trends towards greater redistribution and poverty reduction in most of South America denote that Latin America is shaping a new social contract that can serve as a model for more advanced economies doubting their neoliberal convictions after the 2008 financial crisis. By successfully aligning government policies with the demands of popular movements, Latin America is leading an alternative path to the capitalist, market-centered, and white-dominated economic and financial system. While the shift toward this new paradigm is gaining momentum as Latin American countries are gaining influence in the new multipolar world, Guardiola-Rivera predicts that the rise in political power of the Hispanic electorate in the United States may be the ultimate driver of this change.

Guardiola-Rivera claims that the systematic extraction of Latin America's resources and the subjugation and enslavement of its peoples built the foundations of the unequal international political and economic system that continues to this day. By offering historical accounts and anecdotal evidence, the author follows the trail of extraction...