The transformation and fading of Christian Democracy in Latin America
Christian Democracy parties in Latin America have the tendency to be less idealistic and programmatic and more pragmatic, while several forces pushed Christian Democratic parties toward more pragmatism (Mainwaring, 364). Christian Democratic faced dim choices (364). It is obvious that Christian Democracy was an important party in seven Latin American countries—Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Colombia, but on the region point of view, Christian Democratic parties did not get the electoral success in Latin America compared with the Western Europe (364). Why the importance of Christian Democracy decline in Latin America? To answer this question, the
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Why did they collapse? The pattern of collapse was different comparing Peru and Venezuela with El Salvador and Guatemala. In the case of El Salvador and Guatemala, the Christian Democratic parties were “squeezed between and besieged by a revolutionary left and an authoritarian right (Mainwaring, 375)”. Neither the right nor the left would like to accept the peace that promised by Christian Democrats in terms of center. In contrast to the situation in El Salvador and Guatemala, in Venezuela and Peru, the Christian Democratic parties fell apart because of the protracted economic decline and political disaffection during which time other traditional parties also suffered (Mainwaring, 376). While these important differences between the failure of the parties where the disappointing governments were the causes (El Salvador and Guatemala) and cases where governments had little to do with failures (Peru and Venezuela). In all of the cases, the collapse was not only related to electoral competition, but also to regime failure (Mainwaring, …show more content…
The limited electoral future of Christian Democracy in Latin America was probably a combination of two reasons: first, the decline of several old Christian Democratic parties, and the second, no new Christian Democratic parties are newly created (Mainwaring, 376). While some other plausible alternative explanations for the decline are worth to bring up. First, the decline is not the intrinsic defects (nonviable programmatic space) of the movement (Mainwaring, 376); second, nor a product of secularization (376); third, nor the result of unfaithful to its initial mission (376) which contrary to “Christian Democracy has failed to reach its potential because it has forgotten its ideological roots (Lynch, x)”. The fact is that since 1960s, no Christian Democratic parties have been created in Latin America. This lack of new parties was a result of the less enthusiasm among Church and Catholic leaders. Thus, because of the lack of enthusiasm for creating new parties, the old ones may face electoral demise (Mainwaring, 380). The future of Christian Democracy in the region counts on the existing parties while a lot of them have virtually disappeared from the electoral stage. Maybe Christian Democracy will disappear given the difficulties that they
This paper will be exploring the book The Vanguard of the Atlantic World by James Sanders. This book focuses upon the early 1800 to the 1900 and explores the development of South American political system as well expresses some issues that some Latino counties had with Europe and North America. Thus, Sanders focus is on how Latin America political system changes throughout this certain time and how does the surrounding countries have an effect as well on Latin political system. Therefore, the previous statement leads into some insight on what the thesis of the book is. Sanders thesis is, “Latin American’s believed they represented the future because they had adopted Republicanism and democracy while Europe was in the past dealing with monarchs
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
Models for post-revolutionary Latin American government are born of the complex economic and social realities of 17th and 18th century Europe. From the momentum of the Enlightenment came major political rebellions of the elite class against entrenched national monarchies and systems of power. Within this time period of elitist revolt and intensive political restructuring, the fundamental basis for both liberal and conservative ideology was driven deep into Latin American soil. However, as neither ideology sought to fulfill or even recognize the needs or rights of mestizo people under government rule, the initial liberal doctrine pervading Latin American nations perpetuated racism and economic exploitation, and paved the way for all-consuming, cultural wars in the centuries to come.
All throughout the 20th century we can observe the marked presence of totalitarian regimes and governments in Latin America. Countries like Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic all suffered under the merciless rule of dictators and military leaders. Yet the latter country, the Dominican Republic, experienced a unique variation of these popular dictatorships, one that in the eyes of the world of those times was great, but in the eyes of the Dominicans, was nothing short of deadly.
To begin with, it must be remembered that Catholic culture and Catholic faith, while mutually supportive and symbiotic, are not the same thing. Mr. Walker Percy, in his Lost in the Cosmos, explored the difference, and pointed out that, culturally, Catholics in Cleveland are much more Protestant than Presbyterians in say, Taos, New Orleans, or the South of France. Erik, Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, points out that the effects of this dichotomy upon politics, attributing the multi-party system in Catholic countries to the Catholic adherence to absolutes; he further ascribes the two-party system to the Protestant willingness to compromise. However this may be, it does point up a constant element in Catholic thought---the pursuit of the absolute.
Time and rules have been transforming countries in many ways; especially, in the 1850’s and the 1920’s, when liberals were firmly in control across Latin American region. Liberalism can be defined as a dominant political philosophy in which almost every Latin American country was affected. A sense of progress over tradition, reason over faith, and free market over government control. Although each country was different, all liberals pursued similar policies. They emphasize on legal equality for all citizens, progress, free trade, anti-slavery, and removing power from church. Liberals declared promising changes for Latin American’s future. But Latin America had a stronger hierarchical society with more labor systems, nothing compare to the United States societies. Liberals weren’t good for Latin America. What I mean by “good” is the creation of a turning point or some type of contribution towards success. I define “good” as beneficial or helpful. The Latin American economy was stagnant between 1820 and 1850 because of independence wars, transportation and the recreation of facilities. I describe this era as, “the era when Latin America when off road”.
After gaining independence, Latin American countries had difficulty in how to govern the newly instated states. In the chaos, people took advantage of this and instated themselves as dictators. They had simply took the position from the Spanish that they tried to vanquish (class notes). The power structure remained and the people who fought for independence were largely ignored and continuously oppressed. These dictatorships had remained in power until very recently. Paraguay was finally freed from the dictatorship in 1989 (Chapter
The Times favored the democratic concepts professed by the middle class. A wave of freedom of speech, press, and assembly engulfed much of Latin America and bathed the middle class with satisfaction. New political parties emerged to represent broader segments of the population. Democracy, always a fragile plant anywhere, seemed ready to blossom throughout Latin America. Nowhere was this change more amply illustrated than in Guatemala, where Jorge Ubico ruled as dictator from 1931 until 1944.
Who has the greater legitimacy to represent the people? The president or the legislatures. In comparing the Chilean 1970 Presidential Election to 1979 Spanish appointment of Adolfo Suirez as Prime Minister, Linz notes “Allende received a six-year mandate for controlling the government even with much less than a majority of the popular vote, while Suirez, with a plurality of roughly the same size, found it necessary to work with other parties to sustain a minority government”. Linz supports the fusion of the executive and legislative branches because it forces a sense of cooperation. He points out that “presidential systems may be more or less dependent on the cooperation of the legislature; the balance between executive and legislative power in such systems can thus vary considerably” Linz admits that “presidential elections do offer the indisputable advantage of allowing the people to choose their chief executive openly, directly, and for a predictable span rather than leaving that decision to the backstage maneuvering of the politicians.” but qualifies it by stating that it is only and beneficial if the majority of the people of spoken. In Scott Mainwaring and Matthew Shugart’s critical appraisal of “The Perils of Presidentialism” they offer counter arguments when they suggest that a bicameral parliament can just as easily have dual legitimacy issues as a President and legislative body. It should be recognized that Linz does not address the checks and balances that allows for a more regulated government ensuring that power is not concentrated in the hands of one group. Nor does he address that elections
Peeler, John A. Latin American Democracies. Chapel Hill, NC and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Print.
The Story of Christianity is a very informative summation; a continuation of Volume 1 which covered the beginning of the church up to the Protestant Reformation, while Vol. 2 dealt with the Protestant Reformation up to more modern time period. This author delivers a more comprehensive and deeper look into the development of Christianity, which includes particular events which had transpired throughout the world; particularly how Christianity has expanded into Central and South America. Gonzalez opens up this book with the “Call for Reformation,” where he shares with his readers the need for reform; the papacy had started to decline and was corrupt, in addition to the Great Schism, which had further weakened the papacy (p.8). The author explains how the church was not the only issue but that the church’s teachings were off track as well, seeing that the people had deviated from...
By the fall of 1981, the Argentinean government under the leadership of General Galtieri and the military junta was experiencing a significant decrease of power. Economical...
The first Catholic priests came to South America with the conquistadors and through social and political force superimposed 16th century Catholicism upon conquered peoples and in subsequent generations upon slaves arriving in the New World. Catholicism has, likewise, frequently absorbed, rather than confronted, popular folk religious beliefs. The resulting religion is often overtly Catholic but covertly pagan. Behind the Catholic facade, the foundations and building structure reflect varying folk religious traditions. (2)
Now days democracy has been establish in every Latin America country except Cuba, which is still a socialist state. It seemed that every other alternative form of government such as Marxism or Leninism has failed and been replaced by democracy. Furthermore it looks like people in Latin American really enjoy democracy and its’ benefits, as they also consider it to be the best form of government. After the failure of authoritarian leaders and the military intervene their lives, Latin American citizens wanted to change their system into a more fair and honest system, democracy. Democracy is usually defined as a system of honesty, equality, freedom of rights, though for Latin America countries it means gains, welfare and patronage. Latin American did not work the democratic system properly as it should be and different obstacles keep the system away from being consolidated. Democracy in Latin America still face serious problems in matters as grinding poverty, huge social gaps, corruption, drug dealing, inefficient governments and most importantly governments who promote and use military. The real question is why democracy actually failed even though democracy is what people want. Paraguay is a case of failure in transition democracy because of the corruption and other things that will be argued in this essay. Paraguay and Ecuador are considered to be the only countries that democratization did not achieve consolidation, in differ from Chilli and Central American.
This ensures that everyone in the masses will be represented politically as long as there are people willing to vote a party that represents their concerns, unlike a one-party state. However, a multi-party state is not advantageous for developing states, as young political parties are not mature enough to set aside their differences for their common goal of economic and social progress. There is constant in-fighting among the political parties, causing them to lose sight of the overall goal. This leads to stagnation and an impasse in the policy-making process, contributing to political decay. Even the most established democratic governments are not exempt from the above, as seen from the US government shut-down in 2013 due to disagreements between the two major political parties (Yan, 2013). Another example is when Indonesia just achieved independence and a multi-party system was implemented, with numerous parties representing different groups in society. This resulted in conflicting interests, incompetent and corrupt administration, while hyperinflation wrecked the economy (Girling, 1997). In contrast, a one-party state is able to make unified, quick decisions. Young democracies are more unstable, and any delay in policy-making could cause great detriment to national development. Recent political infighting in Somalia could lead to the collapse of the government, and this stalemate in governance has caused a rise in militant and terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab and corruption, as well as a decrease in both local and international confidence in the Somalia government (“The Consequences of Political Infighting,” 2013). Without effective state, important policies concerning anti-terrorism, the economy and the legal system cannot be passed, hindering development. Established democracies are able to