Assessing Democracy In Latin America

Assessing Democracy In Latin America
Author: Philip Kelly
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2021-11-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429721277

Based on fifty years worth of data, Assessing Democracy in Latin America examines and compares the progress of Latin American countries toward democracy. The essays in this volume, all written by contributors to the Fitzgibbon Democracy Survey, focus their analyses on those factors most germane to the growth, maintenance, or failure of democratic systems. For example, in his initial chapter, Philip Kelly identifies two variables, mechanized agriculture and per-capita newspaper circulation, as the best statistical indicators of democracy in Latin America. Other contributors explore a variety of new topics such as the connection between democracy and environmental movements (Kathryn Hochstetler and Steven Mumme), political parties (John D. Martz), and social dynamics (Robert L. Peterson).Initiated in 1945 as a method of measuring and ranking Latin American democratic systems, the Fitzgibbon Democracy Surveys longevity and scope provide an unparalleled wealth of scholarly research. This volume offers what few others like it can: a longitudinally deep data set (eleven surveys over the past fifty years) and closely coordinated coverage of the complete range of Latin American countries by specialists assembled expressly for that purpose.

Democracy in Latin America

Democracy in Latin America
Author: Geraldine Lievesley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2024-07-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1526185873

This book offers an insight into the democratic processes and institutions in Latin and Central America. It analyses the different political systems and the challenges to them from the Left and popular movements. Lievesley questions how far democracy is embedded in Latin and Central American and asks what constitutes citizenship in political cultures which remain highly differentiated in terms of the structures and relations of power. She does this through an evaluation of the two distinct perspectives of democracy: the liberal pacted and the radical participatory models. Established political systems, systems in transition from military to civilian rule and Socialist systems are viewed through the prism of these two models. The inter-relationship between state, military, political parties and popular movements are examined with a view to determining the possibility of the emergence of a new politics, which would be inclusion rather than exclusionary and would pursue social justice. The book will provide a stimulating assessment of the region's politics for undergraduates and will provoke debate for postgraduates.

Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America

Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America
Author: Charles Dennison Kenney
Publisher:
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN:

This text explores why and how democracy broke down in Peru in 1992. The author's argument is that institutional factors - especially the absence of a legislative majority - were crucial to the collapse of democracy in Peru during and before this period and throughout Latin America since the 1960s.

Latin American Democracy

Latin American Democracy
Author: Richard L. Millett
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2010-04-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135854157

Nearly thirty years have passed since Latin America began the arduous task of transitioning from military-led rule to democracy. In this time, more countries have moved toward the institutional bases of democracy than at any time in the region’s history. Nearly all countries have held free, competitive elections and most have had peaceful alternations in power between opposing political forces. Despite these advances, however, Latin American countries continue to face serious domestic and international challenges to the consolidation of stable democratic governance. The challenges range from weak political institutions, corruption, legacies of militarism, transnational crime and globalization among others. In Latin American Democracy contributors – both academics and practitioners, North Americans and Latin Americans – explore and assess the state of democratic consolidation in Latin America by focusing on the specific issues and challenges confronting democratic governance in the region.

Democracy in Latin America

Democracy in Latin America
Author: Geraldine Lievesley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1999
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780719043116

This textbook provides an understanding of the process of democratization in Latin America. The author explores the various paths to democracy followed in different countries of the region.

Politics, Society, And Democracy Latin America

Politics, Society, And Democracy Latin America
Author: Scott Mainwaring
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2018-02-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429977778

This is the third of four volumes compiled in honor of Juan J. Linz and edited by H. E. Chehabi, Richard Gunther, Alfred Stepan, and Arturo Valenzuela. Each volume presents original research and theoretical essays by Linz's distinguished collaborators, students, teachers, and friends, as well as overviews of his enormous contributions to Spanish and Latin American studies, comparative politics, and sociology.In Volume III, leading Latin American scholars evaluate Juan Linz's contribution to the study of Latin American politics, in particular his influence on studies dealing with authoritarianism, democratic breakdown, public opinion, regime transition, and the institutional conditions needed for stable democracy.

Digital Technologies for Democratic Governance in Latin America

Digital Technologies for Democratic Governance in Latin America
Author: Anita Breuer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135046069

This book is the first to comprehensively analyse the political and societal impacts of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in a region of the Global South. It evaluates under what conditions some Latin American governments and people have succeeded in taking up the opportunities related to the spread of ICTs, while others are confronted with the pessimist scenario of increased, digitally induced social and democratic cleavages. Specifically, the book examines if and how far the spread and use of new ICT affected central aims of democratic governance such as reducing socio-economic and gender inequality; strengthening citizen participation in political decision making; increasing the transparency of legislative processes; improving administrative processes; providing free access to government data and information; and expanding independent spaces of citizen communication. The country case and cross-country explore a range of bottom-up driven initiatives to reinforce democracy in the region. The book offers researchers and students an interdisciplinary approach to these issues by linking it to established theories of media and politics, political communication, political participation, and governance. Giving voice to researchers native to the region and with direct experience of the region, it uniquely brings together contributions from political scientists, researchers in communication studies and area studies specialists who have a solid record in political activism and international development co-operation.

Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America

Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America
Author: Leonardo Avritzer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2009-01-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400825016

This is a bold new study of the recent emergence of democracy in Latin America. Leonardo Avritzer shows that traditional theories of democratization fall short in explaining this phenomenon. Scholars have long held that the postwar stability of Western Europe reveals that restricted democracy, or "democratic elitism," is the only realistic way to guard against forces such as the mass mobilizations that toppled European democracies after World War I. Avritzer challenges this view. Drawing on the ideas of Jürgen Habermas, he argues that democracy can be far more inclusive and can rely on a sphere of autonomous association and argument by citizens. He makes this argument by showing that democratic collective action has opened up a new "public space" for popular participation in Latin American politics. Unlike many theorists, Avritzer builds his case empirically. He looks at human rights movements in Argentina and Brazil, neighborhood associations in Brazil and Mexico, and election-monitoring initiatives in Mexico. Contending that such participation has not gone far enough, he proposes a way to involve citizens even more directly in policy decisions. For example, he points to experiments in "participatory budgeting" in two Brazilian cities. Ultimately, the concept of such a space beyond the reach of state administration fosters a broader view of democratic possibility, of the cultural transformation that spurred it, and of the tensions that persist, in a region where democracy is both new and different from the Old World models.

Party Vibrancy and Democracy in Latin America

Party Vibrancy and Democracy in Latin America
Author: Fernando Rosenblatt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2018-04-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190870052

Even in Latin America's most socially and economically stable countries, new parties emerge constantly, old parties collapse, and party systems across the region are notoriously fragile. Still, there are also successful stories. There have been a number of parties in Colombia, Chile, and Venezuela that used to be able to operate well beyond electoral cycles and preserve a significant presence in their respective countries for decades. How do such political parties remain vibrant organizations over time? In Party Vibrancy and Democracy in Latin America, Fernando Rosenblatt sheds new light on how party vibrancy is maintained and reproduced over time in three of the region's more stable countries-Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. Referencing these three "consolidated" democracies with records of good governance, Rosenblatt identifies the complex interaction between four causal factors that can explain party vibrancy: Purpose, Trauma, Channels of Ambition, and Moderate Exit Barriers. "Purpose" activates prospective loyalty among party members. "Trauma" refers to a shared traumatic past which engenders retrospective loyalty. "Channels of Ambition" are established routes by which individuals can pursue political careers. Finally, "Moderate Exit Barriers" are rules that set costs of defection at reasonable levels. When these factors work together throughout a party's "Golden Age," they can demonstrate a link between party organizations´ stability and the quality of democratic representation across Latin America. As Rosenblatt finds, when parties remain vibrant organizations, democracies are better able to withstand challenges long-term. A unique qualitative study, Party Vibrancy and Democracy in Latin America demonstrates how the vitality of political parties can directly and indirectly impact how effective they are as intermediaries for their citizens not just in Latin America, but around the world.