Coups d'état, democracy in Latin America and its challenges (original) (raw)

Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America

2013

cott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Liñan's book, Democracies and dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall, is a hefty work. In the book, the authors analyzed 65 years of political regime changes in the subcontinent, from 1945 to 2010, with some digressions on the preceding period, since the early twentieth century. For this analysis, the authors made use of a broad collection of data on regimes and political actors within these countries during the analyzed period. The actors were analyzed regarding their stances on certain basic operating principles of a democracy and on public policies. As for the countries, the authors observed if at the end of each year the regime in force was a democratic, semi-democratic, or an authoritarian regime, classified upon certain conditions of political competition, both by criteria established by the authors and based on other databases, such as Polity IV. Lastly, the authors also considered the international scenario (especially the regional scenario) to identify its influence on national political processes. Other variables were also taken into account, such as the level of development, income distribution, social stratification etc, in order to test alternative explanations for the fluctuation of different regimes.

Democracy in Latin America? An assesment

Razon Y Palabra, 2009

This essay will make an evaluation about political liberalism in the electoral democracies of Latin America. For doing so it will take into account three different indicators: a) the rule of law, b) horizontal accountability, encompassing: i) separation of powers/checks and balances, and ii) corruption, and; c) the respect for civil rights (specifically freedom of expression). This will be done through different examples that show that Latin American democracies are far from consolidated (e.g. that don't fulfil the previous three criteria) and that a 'second transition' is needed in order for them to become liberal, constitutional democracies.

Beyond consolidation: Democracy and dictatorship in post-transitional Latin America

Constellations, 2017

Considerations of contemporary Latin American democracies from different analytical and political angles today converge on one point: disappointment. After more than three decades since the first transitions to democracy in the 1980s, the quality, progress and consolidation of Latin American democracies is being questioned not only by academic circles but also and above all by citizens, social movements and intellectuals. Despite this widespread frustration with democracy, however, the fact is that historically, the political map of the region has never been more democratic. With the exception of Cuba and, until very recently, of Haiti, Latin American and Caribbean countries celebrate periodical, and, more or less, free and clean elections. 1 In this article, I argue that rather than democracy what is at stake in current Latin American political regimes is the rule of law. I am concerned with the constitutional aspect, rather than the merely electoral dimension of contemporary Latin American democratic regimes. To provide the reader with a general overview of Latin American post-transitional scenarios, and leaving the Caribbean aside, I identify three trends in contemporary Latin America: 1) democracies with liberal-republican legitimacy; 2) democracies with populist legitimacy, and 3) democracies with failed legitimacy. I should underscore that rather than consolidated processes I speak of trends, developments and tendencies; thus the following ideal types should be taken with a certain amount of flexibility according to its individual case. These types are also intended to serve as tools to describe mixed forms (e.g. Brazil under the Workers Party was a hybrid form of the republican and populist types) and trends or trajectories from one group to another, for example, from a populist to a failed legitimacy type (e.g. Venezuela, Argentina), from a failed to a liberal-republican type (e.g. Colombia), or from a liberal-republican with populist features to a failed legitimacy type (Brazil). 2

Dismantling the Fragile Latin American Democracy -Notes About the Second Decade of the 21 st Century

ATINER CONFERENCE PRESENTATION SERIES No: POL2022-0255, 2022

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, we have witnessed a considerable number of countries expanding their democracy, legitimating social sectors historically relegated as protagonists of the decision-making process. In the midst of this process there has been a significant distribution of income, and an increase in access to public policies. Gender, race, and indigenous demands have taken place – with different levels of intensity – in the institutional environment; even though still marginal to the neoliberal offensive. Nonetheless, from the beginning of the second decade of the century, a progressive longings reversal has gained strength in the wake of a noticeable international situation. Under the neoliberal-conservative erspective, institutional access to popular demands has been reduced, and the governments have naturalised the economic inequalities and the legitimisation of violence as a prevailing method of dealing with differences. Although this scenario stands national particularities, usually related to historical and geopolitical aspects and to the correlation of forces in each country, most of the contemporary governments have been supported against republican legal foundations and the colluded media. These institutional apparatus have reinforced the state’s repressive arm with the help of a myriad of evangelical churches that corroborate them. With the conservative’ notions spreading, the neoliberal individualism enhances the proscription of social solidarity and tolerant perspectives of diversity, which are premises for contemporary democracy. This critic conjuncture demands to re-examine the debates between economic inequalities and political participation, along with the exigency for direct growing democracies.

Introduction: Regimes and Democracy in Latin America

Studies in Comparative International Development, 2001

T he dramatic alternation of democratic and authoritarian regimes in Latin America has provided both the empirical base and the normative motivation for research that is conceptually innovative, methodologically self-conscious, and richly grounded in the analysis of cases. 1 This tradition of research has generated an impressive range of substantive findings about some of the most important questions of politics. Moreover, it has been associated with significant methodological innovations-helping contribute to new perspectives on small-N comparative analysis, and to the refinement and enrichment of concepts in comparative research. For these reasons, the study of national political regimes in Latin America has been a prominent locus of influential work in comparative politics and comparative social science over nearly four decades. This special issue of Studies in Comparative International Development presents a new set of articles that further advances this tradition of research. The three central concerns are: (1) the ongoing effort to open new agendas and identify new research questions; (2) methodological issues, specifically the measurement of key concepts and the systematic use of subnational comparison; and (3) the empirical assessment of causal claims about regime change, in the present case building on an approach that frames these claims within a long time horizon. Guillermo O'Donnell's article extends his earlier efforts to formulate concepts appropriate for the analysis of democracy in Latin America since the 1980s. The point of departure is O'Donnell's observation that existing democratic theory does not provide an adequate framework for studying these democracies. He points out that-notwithstanding the recent emphasis on procedural minimum definitions-efforts to conceptualize democracy that draw upon Joseph Schumpeter inherently cannot limit themselves to institutional

Dilemmas of democratization in Latin America

Comparative politics, 1990

The demise of authoritarian rule in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay, when combined with efforts at political liberalization in Mexico and the recent election of civilian presidents in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, ...