Yearly Archives: 2015

                                                                                                           Luis Rubio A variety of readings allow one to think, know and learn about the diversity of the world encircling us. Tolkien, an English poet, said it with his customary brilliance: “Not all who wander are lost”. Here is a […]

 Luis Rubio The first book I read on embarking upon the study of Political Science was Introduction to Political Thought by Umberto Cerroni, a small but substantial tome. There I came to know the first fruits of Machiavelli not only as the earliest articulator of formal political thought in the modern era, but also as something distinct […]

 Luis Rubio The young and already internationally renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs called on the then Secretary General of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED), Jean-Claude Paye, immediately after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Sachs claimed that all that was needed to get the economy moving was to liberate Russia’s animal spirits. […]

Luis Rubio When Adlai Stevenson was contending for the U.S. presidency with Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, a supporter once called out to him: “Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!” And Stevenson, a politico-intellectual, answered him: “That’s not enough. I need a majority.” Tension among groups and social classes is a constant throughout history […]

Alto Nivel – November 2015                                                                                                                                    Luis Rubio To announce the surrender of his government in 1945, Emperor Hirohito employed a peculiar linguistic formulation: “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage”. The phrase suggests the complexity of the moment, but above all the incapacity to understand the circumstances that had led to […]

Luis Rubio Three categories of institutions lie at the heart of a political system: the State, the Rule of Law and an accountable government. For those who conceive of institutions as the large buildings that personify them, the perspective of Fukuyama* permits the understanding of institutions to a lesser extent as a product of legal […]

Luis Rubio Argentines employ the term “viveza criolla” (native cunning) and define it as “opportunistic depredation: timeliness in taking maximal advantage of the most minimal opportunity, sparing no effort in making use of either consequences or prejudices for others.” This is not distinct from cutting corners, acquiring a benefit by purchasing the good will of an […]

Luis Rubio In 1982, in the middle of the maelstrom that he had precipitated, former Mexican President José López-Portillo affirmed that “I am responsible for the navigating but not for the storm”. It never occurred to him to think that when a ship is piloted directly into a storm the probability of its being swept […]

Luis Rubio “Men will never act well except through necessity: but where choice abounds and where license may be used, everything is quickly filled with confusion and disorder”, affirmed Machiavelli in his Discourses. That is what the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana seems like. It appears to me that three themes are merged and […]

Luis Rubio According to an anecdote that modernizes a story told by Plutarch in his Lives, an exhausted U.S. banker was found resting in a small fishing village on the Yucatecan Gulf Coast of Mexico.  Every day he watched a fisherman set out to sea at daybreak, returning with a few fish and then he […]