SOURCE
CITATIONS
HARD TALK FORUM:
Mark Weisbrot
Neoliberalism Has
Failed
Fall 2007
FULL REBUTTAL:
Rodríguez would have us
believe that despite a quadrupling of real social spending per
person
under the Chávez government, poor Venezuelans are no better off.
This is absurd. He makes
the case through inappropriate use of selected data. For example,
the household survey he
uses for literacy is based on an interview asking the question "Does this
family member know
how to read?"(1) That this crude measure has shown only modest
improvement is compatible
with hundreds of thousands of illiterate or near-illiterate people having
improved their reading
skills from literacy training. Measuring infant mortality in 2004,
coming out of the oil strike/
economic crisis that sent social indicators sharply downward, is also
very misleading. His
other data are similarly non-representative of the current economy that
has grown 76 percent
(real) in the current expansion, with unemployment dropping from 18.4 to
8.3 percent and
poverty from 55.1 to 30.4 percent.(2) The allegations about civil
liberties are even more
exaggerated. No reputable international human rights group has
claimed that Venezuela,
Ecuador or Bolivia has
suffered an erosion of civil liberties as compared to past
governments.(3) Rodriguez's criticisms of these governments are
based on ideology, not
economics.
REBUTTAL ENDNOTES:
(1) Daniel Ortega, Francisco Rodríguez and
Edward Miguel (2006), "Freed from Illiteracy? A
Closer Look at Venezuela's Robinson Literacy Campaign." Available
online at:
http://frrodriguez.web.wesleyan.edu/docs/working_papers/Freed_from_Illiteracy.pdf
(2) See Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval
(2007), "The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez
Years," Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, DC.
Available online at:
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela_2007_07.pdf
(3) See Mark
Weisbrot and Robert McChesney, "Venezuela and the Media: Fact and
Fiction;" and
Patrick McElwee, "Is Free Speech Really at Stake? Venezuela and RCTV,"
CommonDreams.org,
May 23, 2007. Available online at:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/23/1405/.
ARTICLE ENDNOTES:
1.
Calculations are
based on constant price GDP series, (Banco Central de Venezuela,
“Agregados
Macroeconomicos: PIB por Sectores Institucionales.
Precios Constantes.
Base
1997 [Trimestral],”
Banco Central de Venezuela, <http://www.bcv.org.ve/c2/indicadores.asp>
[accessed
June 18, 2007]).
2.
http://www.pdvsa.com/interface.sp/database/fichero/publicacion/1792/76.PDF
3.
"Balance del avance de los servicios asistenciales de la misión
Barrio Adentro,” Gobierno
Bolivariano de
Venezuela, Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Comunicación y la
Información,
February
21, 2007<http://www.misionesbolivarianas.gob.ve/component/option,com_docman/
Itemid,0/task,doc_download/gid,219/>
(accessed July 20, 2007).
4.
Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela,
Ministerio del Poder
Popular para la Planificación y
Desarrollo, “Logros,” Sistema
Integrado de Indicadores Sociales de la República Bolivariana
de Venezuela, February 2007, <http://www.sisov.mpd.gob.ve/estudios/>
(accessed July 20,
2007).
5.
“Memoria y Cuenta 2006,” (Annual report of the Ministry of
Food/Nutrition to the National
Assembly),
Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela,
Ministerio del Poder Popular para la
Alimentación.
6.
Gobierno
Bolivariano de Venezuela,
Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Planificación y
Desarrollo, “Logros.”
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9.
Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Comunicación y la Información,
“Misión Robinson I y II
al 16 de
febrero de 2007,” February 27, 2007,
<www.misionesbolivarianas.gob.ve/component/
option,com_docman/Itemid,0/task,doc_download/gid,223/>.
10.
World Bank, World Development Indicators Online [countries:
"Venezuela, RB" and "Latin
America & Caribbean"; series: "Internet users" and "Internet users per
1,000"; years: "2005"]
(accessed on June 6, 2006).
11. See Mark Weisbrot, "Bolivia's Economy: The First Year,"
Issue Brief, January 2007 (Center
for Economic and Policy Research: Washington, DC),
<http://65.181.187.63/documents/publications/bolivias_economy_the_first_year.pdf> and
“Bolivia 2006: Article VI Consultation,” International Monetary Fund
Country Report No. 06/270,
July 2006, <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2006/cr06270.pdf>.
12. European
Commission, Eurostat (Goverment finance statistics
<http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat>
[accessed on July 3, 2007]); Central Bank of Bolivia (Banco
Central de Bolivia, Información Estadística, Sector Fiscal <http://www.bcb.gov.bo>
[accessed
on June 18, 2006]); and Venezuelan Ministry of Finance (Ministerio
del Poder Popular para las
Finanzas, Estadísticas Fiscales <http://www.mf.gov.ve>
[accessed on June 18, 2007]).
13.
Angus
Maddison, “World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2001AD,”
<www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file.xls>
(access on June 18, 2007);
International Monetary Fund, “World Economic Outlook Database, April
2007,"
<www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/01/index.htm>
(accessed on June 18, 2007); and
author’s calculations.
14.
Weisbrot, et al., "The Scorecard on Development: 25 Years of
Diminished Progress,"
Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Department of Economic
and Social Affairs
Working Paper
No. 31 (United Nations: New York), September 2006
<www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2006/wp31_2006.pdf>.
