Assessing Democracy In Latin America
Assessing Democracy In Latin America

Author: Philip Kelly

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-28

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0429721277

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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

Published: 2024-07-30

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1526185873

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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.

Latin American Democracy
Latin American Democracy

Author: Richard L. Millett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-04-26

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 1135854157

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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

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780719043116

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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

Published: 2018-02-19

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0429977778

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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.

Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America
Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America

Author: Leonardo Avritzer

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-01-10

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1400825016

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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

Published: 2018-04-27

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0190870052

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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.

Revisiting Assessing the Quality of Democracy
Revisiting Assessing the Quality of Democracy

Author: Miguel Centellas

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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This paper revisits the challenge of empirically measuring the quality of democracy in Latin America in the wake of the region's 'left turn' since the 1990s and the rise of classic populist leaders in several countries. Building on an earlier effort by David Altman and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán to measure the quality of democracy, this paper develops a revised measure of effective competition. The paper develops this new measure through an exploratory assessment of nine key cases. The paper then tests the validity of this measure against the Freedom House index, a widely accepted assessment of the quality of democracy. Finally, the paper then measures the nine cases, at various points in time, along two dimensions consistent with Robert Dahl's understanding of polyarchy: effective competition and effective participation (based on the author's previous work).