On Trade, Democracy Is Speaking

Polls in developing countries are notoriously unreliable, although you occasionally find some good work coming out of universities. This latest poll from the University of Costa Rica shows that nearly 60% of decided voters will oppose CAFTA in the upcoming referendum there. Costa Rica is the only one of the 7 CAFTA nations not to have ratified the pact, and CAFTA critic Otton Solis came within a percentage point of becoming president (after being thought of initially as a long shot candidate). Keep in mind, the level of opposition to CAFTA is very high in all the CAFTA countries, it's just that Costa Rica - thanks to the lack of war and U.S. intervention there - has developed political institutions (including a very forward looking referendum mechanism) that allow popular views to be more clearly articulated.