ABSTRACT
Latin Americans overlook the actual practice of liberal institutions, which are far more communitarian than they imagine. Between the individualist and the collectivist, there is the communitarian individual. The American way of overcoming individualism is not through an all-consuming attachment to the state or any other collective, but through the building up of many diverse associations and communities. The American principle is to empower individuals through local agencies to achieve their own independence. The American ideal of political economy depends upon the wisdom and undergirding strength of an activist government, which must remove impediments, lend assistance, and through positive actions release the manifold energies of the private sector. The ideal of democratic capitalism is to bring the three independent, interdependent systems—the political system, the economic system, the moral-cultural system—into harmonious collaboration. The political system has as one of its central tasks to "promote the general welfare".
