Is Costa Rica Socialist?

[BayCityProgressive]

I was just reading up a little on Costa Rica. I read that unions have a large membership, and the insurance, bankcing, energy, electricity, water, telecommunications, and mass transit are all state monopolies. There is definately small busienss and private enterprise in the country...but the people seem to have control over the banks and all major areas of the economy. Would this not be considered socialism? Also, they have NO army. having a military is banned in the constitution.

[Selatius]

1. Mixed economy trending socialist from your description.

If Costa Rica set up a support structure to turn many small businesses into worker co-ops and encourage the formation of worker co-op firms in the small business sector through a community public banking mechanism supported with tax dollars, you would come as close as anybody towards achieving an economy with large swaths, perhaps even a majority of it, socialist in nature. "Economic democracy" could be an apt term for it.

The US economy is also a mixed economy, but at present it trends towards neoliberal instead of collectivist.

[rinsd]

9. Great definition (nt)

[kestrel91316]

2. By the RW definition, anything other than Corporate Christofascism

is "socialism". So yes, they are.

[wakeme2008]

3. I have looked at moving there and Lisa the Webmaster

of http://www.allhatnocattle.net/ has a house down there and is spending more and more of her time down there...

[BayCityProgressive]

4. cool

I had family vacation there and they said it was amazing. They are very good on the environment and human rights as well. I keep getting e-mails about cheap real estate there...haha tempting but now that we have congress back maybe I will wait lol...

[mitchtv]

6. Careful with property there

they also have squatters rights, and a foreigner can lose that land if they are not ther to guard it. they have national medical care and gay rights, prostitution is also legal and the majority of the land is undr some sort of protecion. From a spot above the Panamerican hwy it is possible to see both oceans. Lots of Volcanos, and one of the few places Americans are welcone

[never cry wolf]

10. Gato Moteado moved there

Said he was going to at a Chicago DU meetup a few years ago and has done so since. He has posted some great wildlife pics in the lounge.

[mnhtnbb]

19. Take a look at Panama. Although it's now booming, property

is still less expensive than Costa Rica.

We are building a house in Bocas del Toro, on the Caribbean side
of Panama and will probably retire there in 2008 after our youngest graduates high school.

[W_HAMILTON]

5. Whatever happened to Rita Cosby?

Granted, this has absolutely nothing to do with your post, but it was somehow inspired by it because I think I'm a little dyslexic and saw it as a topic about Rita Cosby instead of Costa Rica :)

[3121guitarist]

7. I wish America was socialist.

Sigh.

[arcos]

8. As a Costa Rican... no, we are not socialist...

It could be considered a mixed economic as someone said above, though.

Certainly unions no longer have a large membership, and are quite unpopular. However, yes, insurance, electricity, water, telecommunications, alcohol production and gas importing and refining are all government monopolies. Private banks have been allowed for a couple of decades now, and the financial sector has opened up quite a bit to competition... however, the two biggest banks in the country are still state owned and operated.

On the other hand, all of this is probably going to change in the very near future. CAFTA is still under discussion in Congress, and as soon as it is approved and implemented, the monopolies on telecommunications and insurance will be open to competition from the private sector. Electricity will probably be opened shortly after, and the government also plans to push to open up the oil refining business.

The current government is pushing CAFTA with everything they have, they are forcing it into Congress, and they expect it to be approved within 3 months. And the government still has 3 more years to open up and privatize everything under the sun.


On edit: Also, the fact that they are state monopolies doesn't necessarily mean that "people have control over them". Although this has certainly allowed wealth redistribution, subsidies that benefit those who need it the most, and fair rates for public services. But it also means bad customer service, long waiting lists to get services and obsolete technology.

[arcos]

11. kick nt

[Leopolds Ghost]

12. Unpopular, huh? Come to the US and experience "deregulation" and union-busting. n/t

[Armstead]

14. I have an odd question

I've often wondered about this. Why is Costa Rica so comparatively enlightened and calm compared to its' neighbors.

It's in a part of the world that seems to historically been plagued by repressive dictatorships, militant opposition, revolutions, counter-revolutions, violence and perpetual strife.

I've never figiured out how Costa Rica seemed to escape from that and maintain a relatively stable and democratic government...I realize it's not paradise, but it somehow has done a lot better than its neighbors in building a civil society.

What would explain that?

[arcos]

17. It goes way back to the colony times...

Costa Rica was very poor and unpopulated when compared to the rest of Central America, so the Spaniards didn't pay much attention to it. There was not a lot of gold, with no big native population, so even though barbarian acts were committed, it wasn't as bad as in most of the rest of Latin America. The "we are different" attitude remained after independence, and it is still very present today.

The big change happened during the 40s, when a weird alliance between the government, the Catholic Church and the Communist Party pushed lots of labor and health reforms to benefit workers. This government, 1940-1944 was headed by Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, and the ruling party candidate was elected for the 1944-1948 period, and Calderón was a candidate again for 1948. He lost the elections, however although he was fairly progressive, his party was determined to stay in power and the election results were annulled.

This caused a brief two month revolution/civil war, in which Calderón was defeated, and a de facto government was installed for a month a half. This junta was led by José Figueres Ferrer, the leader of the revolutionary forces, who called for a constitutional convention and made a lot of progressive reforms. Shortly before leaving office in favor of the democratically elected candidate in 1948, Figueres abolished the army as a permanent institution, and since then money has been spent in healthcare and education.

This saved us from the traditional military coup that plagued Latin America all throughout the 20th century, and a firm and stable democratic path was established.

[rman]

16. "the fact that they are state monopolies doesn't necessarily mean..

..that "people have control over them""

All to true.
The issue is who controls government: The People or corporate interests.

And i'm not so sure privatized 'everything' is a guarantee for good customer service, short waiting lists and the latest technology. After all, corporations want profit - and therefore the lowest possible cost.

[arcos]

20. You are totally right...

Privatized everything is certainly no guarantee at all of a good service, and I never meant to imply it.
However, especially in the telecommunications sector, it usually takes ICE (the state electricity and telecommunications company) a couple of years to expand cellular coverage, in the past people have waited over a year to get a cellular line for example. They spent four years building the DSL infrastructure country-wide, etc. I have always been opposed to opening up the telecommunications market because we pay really low rates for the services we receive and that will certainly change once big corporations come in to takeover the market, but I am sure they would implement new technology much faster.

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. Time to invade Costa Rica. Pura Vida, m***erf***ahs!!!

[joeunderdog]

15. Not socialist, just social. Nice people. great place

My favorite place in the world. Been 5 times in the last several years and will be there again within a couple months. World bank has its grimy paws in there and is pushing tourism and logging, so I'm worried for them. They take politics seriously. No drinking for days during election time (last year, all the bars were dry on superbowl sunday!) They value their honest political system and have locked up 2 recent presidents for crimes in office. I'm so fucken jealous!!!!


P U R A V I D A !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DaveJ]

18. I was going to say something like that.

Never been there but it sounds like a refreshingly sane place.

[callous taoboy]

21. They have no welfare policy:

So if you are poor but have a banana tree on your property you'll be selling those bananas. I was struck by the huge gap between rich and poor, especially in San Jose where a pink marble mansion perched on a hill can have several cardboard "houses" at the bottom of the hill. I did find most of the people to be very friendly, but the air pollution in San Jose was very, very bad.

[arcos]

22. But unlike the US, you will have healthcare...

If you are very poor, you can also have access to the "bono de vivienda" which will give you enough money to buy a "social interest" house, which is certainly small and not adequate for big families, but it is your own roof. Also, if kids from very poor families are kept in school, the government will give families around $100 per month per child so that they don't have to work.

That's welfare to me.