Former Chilean Finance Minister Andrés Velasco has argued that growing public dissatisfaction with political leaders and democratic institutions is rooted more in a crisis of values and trust than in purely economic causes. He made the remarks on Monday at the World In Progress international forum, organised by Grupo PRISA in Barcelona.

Velasco, who served in the first government of Chilean socialist President Michelle Bachelet from 2006 to 2010 and later taught at the London School of Economics, said protests against the state can intensify even when economic conditions are relatively strong. He cited Poland as an example of a country where discontent with democracy exists despite solid economic performance.

During a conversation with Ricardo de Querol, director of Cinco Días and deputy editor of El País, Velasco said that frustration over democracy’s unfulfilled promises should be understood as a political problem. He acknowledged that people with middle or low incomes are taking to the streets, but argued that economic circumstances alone cannot account for a phenomenon appearing across countries with very different conditions.

“If the same situation occurs in so many different countries, the cause cannot be purely local,” Velasco said. In his view, the central issue is the breakdown of trust between citizens and the politicians to whom they delegate power.

Velasco described democracy as essentially an act of delegation. When citizens trust the political class, he said, that arrangement works; when trust disappears, every development becomes a source of conflict.

The economist also rejected placing the full responsibility for public discontent on the pressure facing the global economy because of supply disruptions linked to wars, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in Iran. He noted that the world economy continues to grow, although slowly, and said that the United States has maintained higher growth rates than the rest of the industrialised world despite shortcomings in its government.

Sources: El País Internacional.