April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Despite key improvements during Néstor Kirchner's presidency, Argentine democracy remains vulnerable to crisis. The near collapse of the party system and weakness of political and economic institutions continue to threaten stability.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Brazil under Lula offers a test case of how politicians and societal interests in developing countries react when economic growth and new possibilities change the name of the game from shock and scarcity to boom and prosperity.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Long an extreme case of institutionalized instability, Ecuador now has a dynamic young president who is determined to remake its constitution, and eventually its society, in the name of "twenty-first-century socialism."
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
Attitudes toward democracy in Latin America vary from country to country, and within countries between left and right. Public opinion is strongly affected by the success or failure of political leaders in delivering social and economic change.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Where indigenous peoples constitute a smaller share of the electorate, their recent inclusion denotes a more generalized opening of the political system to excluded and vulnerable sectors of society.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
By world standards, Latin Americans ideologically are slightly to the right. But their attitudes are moving leftward, a trend with potential implications for democratic stability in the region.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
President Hugo Cháez's regime demonstrates how a public desire for change plus state resources can be exploited to undermine democracy.
January 2007, Volume 18, Issue 1
A crucial requirement of government by consent is the willingness of defeated candidates and parties to concede when the voters' verdict goes against them. Events in Mexico following its July 2006 presidential election have sorely tested that country's young democracy in this regard.
January 2007, Volume 18, Issue 1
Mexico’s system of electoral governance and dispute settlement worked reasonably well, yet it created too much noise and too many needless invitations to distrust. The failures observed were less those of institutions than of actors. The loser reacted deplorably, but none of those involved acted in a manner beyond reproach.
January 2007, Volume 18, Issue 1
Examining Mexico’s electoral rules, political institutions, and the ways in which they interact with one another can tell us much about how current difficulties developed and how they might be resolved.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
Progressive politics in Latin America inevitably draws from the legacies of socialism and populism, but these categories are not very useful today. Can we find better tools for differentiating Latin America's "multiple lefts"?
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
As leftist victories accumulate, it becomes increasingly clear that they represent a regional trend. But why is this trend happening now, and how far will it spread?
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
Latin America must find a way to include its newly urbanized informal workers in more regular channels of economic and political participation. Updating outmoded labor laws is a key to accomplishing this task.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
Chile's new Socialist president Michelle Bachelet will seek to maintain the country's socioeconomic progress, but her attempt to cure growing alienation from the traditional parties could create a new set of problems.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
In reelecting President Alvaro Uribe by a landslide, Colombia's voters opted for continuity. But they chose continuity with an administration that has carried out a major series of policy innovations.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
An unexpected winner emerged in Peru's close-fought presidential election. Alan García's earlier presidential term was calamitous at best, and yet he may now be the harbinger of a brighter future for Peru's democracy.
July 2006, Volume 17, Issue 3
Despite a significant expansion of citizenship over the last few decades, the Andean nations face a severe crisis of democratic representation. The root of the problem lies not in the mechanisms of representation but in poor state performance.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
Authoritarians are stepping up their offensive against democracy promotion, and democracy-assistance organizations will have to meet the challenge.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
From Putin's Russia to Chávez's Venezuela, regimes that claim to be democracies but act like autocracies are emerging as a major long-term threat to freedom.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
The country’s recent political travails are due not to collusion between the two major parties but to the increasing difficulty of reaching interparty agreements.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
In recent decades, Costa Rican society has evolved and become less deferential. Political arrangements that worked well in the past no longer meet the country’s needs.
October 2005, Volume 16, Issue 4
From hurricanes to ethnic and political tensions, the past decade has not been easy for the countries of the Caribbean Community. What does the future hold for these small democracies?
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
Many saw the election of Workers' Party leader Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva to the Brazilian presidency in October 2002 as the beginning of an era. Two years into his first term, Lula has yet to live up to that expectation.
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
Once routinely praised as the "Switzerland of Central America," Costa Rica has in recent years begun to show troubling signs of having a political system that citizens feel is not keeping faith with them.
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
Both the supporters and the foes of President Hugo Chavez went into the August 2004 recall hoping for a complete and final win. While Chavez kept his job and even rides high, Venezuela is still nowhere close to closure.
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
While charges of electronic fraud in the actual voting or vote-counting are unproven, the dubious and even illegal tactics that the Chavez regime used throughout the larger process point to rampant "institutional fraud" that is undermining Venezuelan democracy.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Over the last two decades, Latin America has seen more than a dozen presidencies come to a premature end. It is time to consider changing constitutional designs that promote conflict rather than more consensual ways of doing politics.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Since the end of the Cold War, Central America has seen a regionwide diminution of military influence that bodes well for democratic governance and healthier civil-military relations.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
In an exchange of letters, leading Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya discusses with Vaclav Havel the lessons that the Czechoslovak experience offers to Cubans seeking a democratic transition in thier own country.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Mexico’s 2003 congressional elections confirmed both the transition to fully competitive politics and the persistence of structural deficiencies associated with a multiparty presidential system.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
In the wake of its recent crisis, Argentina can move from survival to stability only if it responds to demands for institutional change in a way that strengthens the country’s institutions over the long term.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
The strains of economic reform have not increased support for antidemocratic populism in Latin America, but they have led to acute dissatisfaction with democratic governments.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
As Latin America suffers from its worst economic crisis in decades, the reform of political institutions remains the region’s best hope.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
Decentralization, heralded as a means of increasing state efficiency and improving representation, has fragmented Latin America’s already weak party systems
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
The recent election of political outsider Lula da Silva as president is a sign of hope for the future of democracy in Brazil.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
What can public-opinion research tell us about the staying power of democracy in the region? Has it passed the point of any possible return to authoritarianism?
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
A review of Democracies in Development: Politics and Reform in Latin America by J. Mark Payne et al.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The November elections were peaceful and competitive. For the third straight time, voters chose a conservative who embraced democratic liberties.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Argentina made headlines around the world last December as its presidency changed hands no fewer than four times in less than two weeks. Lost amid the chaos, however, were hopeful signs that the country has now turned the corner of democratic consolidation.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
In Peru in 2000, the OAS made an unprecedented diplomatic intervention in a member state. Could this be a model for the future?
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Although the OAS helped, sudden public revelations of corruption in Peru were more important.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
A review of Mexico’s Political Awakening, by Vikram K. Chand.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
The Editors’ introduction to “High Anxiety in the Andes.”
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
One key source of the weakness of democracy in the Andean region is the isolation of the “political class” from the rest of society. There are growing signs that this problem is becoming more serious in Bolivia.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
The conventional wisdom about Venezuela’s plight is largely mistaken. Only when Venezuelans recognize the real causes of their woes will they be able to make progress in overcoming them.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
Despite recent progress in the government’s negotiations with rebel groups, Colombia’s problems remain acute: continued violence, growing human rights abuses, severe income inequality, and a depressed economy.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
The sudden and surprising downfall of President Alberto Fujimori has opened the way for a return to democracy in Peru, but the country’s new leaders will face major challenges in the coming years.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
Massive protest by indigenous groups in both 2000 and 2001 have overthrown one president and weakened another. Though such conflict poses a short-term threat, it may ultimately contribute to democratic development.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
Read the full essay here.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Democracy by itself does not put an end to injustice or inequality, but it establishes the most favorable conditions for making progress in the struggle to achieve a just society.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
The astonishing electoral victories by opposition presidential candidates in Korea, Taiwan, and Mexico all followed a remarkably similar pattern, but it is one that may lead to difficulties for democratic consolidation.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Across Latin America, public support for democracy has been remarkably stable and consistently higher than satisfaction with the way that democracy works. Low institutional trust reflects even lower levels of interpersonal trust.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Malapportionment poses a serious, yet hitherto neglected, challenge to the quality and fairness of democracy in many Latin American countries.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Vicente Fox’s victory in Mexico’s July 2000 presidential election revealed the fundamental changes that had been taking place under the veil of governmental continuity.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
The beauty of Mexico’s transition to democracy lay in the way it evolved gradually and peacefully over the course of a decade.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Although Fox’s National Action Party (PAN) is frequently portrayed as a reactionary party, it is better understood as a liberal-democratic alternative to the former ruling party’s authoritarianism.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Any serious discussion of Mexico’s future must take into account its relations with the United States.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Global trends toward economic and political liberalization are presenting East Asian and Latin American democracies with increasingly convergent international opportunities and constraints.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Such a comparison clearly shows a higher prevalence of democracy in Latin America and a better economic performance in East Asia. The two regions are likely to converge on both dimensions, but the gaps will remain.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Despite the persistent doomsaying about the political consequences of untrammeled international capital flows, financial liberalization may actually contribute to democratic consolidation.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Recent studies of democracy in Latin America overlook the role of civil society as an agent of accountability.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
As the experience of Latin America makes clear, a strong civil society is not necessarily a democratic one. Democratic deficits within civil society jeopardize its ability to perform its proper social functions.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
The (Un)Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America, edited by Juan E. Méndez, Guillermo O’Donnell, and Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, offers a harsh appraisal of the region’s legal and justice systems.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Recent disappointments have led to excessive pessimism about Latin America’s economic and democratic prospects. International recognition of the region’s diversity and a sense of perspective about its setbacks will improve its chances for further success.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The most striking thing about Fernando de la Rua’s presidential victory in Argentina was the routine-even boring-character of the elections. This turn toward normalization is a major break with the past.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The unexpectedly strong showing of media-savvy rightist candidate Joaquín Lavín in the 1999 presidential elections and the move to the center by Concertación candidate Ricardo Lagos suggest that Chile has begun to put the ghosts of Allende and Pinochet to rest.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Lavín’s strong showing did not represent an “earthquake” or a dramatic change in the electoral landscape. Voting patterns have remained basically unchanged since 1988, giving Lagos a clear mandate to lead Chile into the next millennium.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
In the November 1999 presidential election, Uruguayans reaffirmed their strong commitment to democracy, while adjusting to a set of constitutional reforms that profoundly altered the electoral system.
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Read the full essay here.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
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July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
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July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
Read the full essay here.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
Read the full essay here.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
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July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
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April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
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January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
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October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
The death of Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz on April 20 was (in the words of Mexico’s president Ernesto Zedillo) “an irreplaceable loss for contemporary thought and culture—not just for Latin America but for the entire world.” Born in Mexico City on 31 March 1914, Paz published his first book of poetry while still…
October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4
Read the full essay here.
October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4
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October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4
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July 1997, Volume 8, Issue 3
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January 1997, Volume 8, Issue 1
A review of Local Government in Latin America, by R. Andrew Nickson.
October 1996, Volume 7, Issue 4
A review of Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America, edited by Scott Mainwaring and Timothy R. Scully.
July 1995, Volume 6, Issue 3
A review of Strong Parties and Lame Ducks: Presidential Partyarchy and Factionalism in Venezuela, by Michael Coppedge and Democracy for the Privileged: Crisis and Transition in Venezuela, by Richard S. Hillman.
