Today more than ever before, more Latin American countries are democratic. These countries for the most part try to follow the democratic principles that translate into citizens having freedom, freedom of choice of their political leaders (elections that are free and fair) , freedom of assembly, freedom of press etc. However, when looking deeper into the datas on whether democracy is taking roots successfully or failing, they seem to show that democracy is just a facade in many of these Latin American countries and that it is only exist by perception of the regime in power. For example, there might be an election in Haiti and a large voter turnout, but is it really free and fair? These questions pundle students like me into looking at the …show more content…
As we discussed in class, the first wave in Latin American starts in the early 19th century with revolutionary movement for independence against Europeans colonial power and end around early 20th century. The second wave of democracy in Latin America come around the 1930’s. Then, Latin America started to be industrialized and we also see some of the democratic principles at work. For example, the formation of political parties and unions and elections become to de-elitist and open to different social classes. The third wave of democracy in Latin America started to emerge in 1980. It brought improvement to the political development process of the region such as democratization of institution, more acceptable government policies a shift from authoritarianism and an increasing importance of party politics has been increasing in Latin America (Latin American Politics [notes] )1. However, despite the democratic wave of the region, the compatibility of the democratic system seems to never fully imposed and worked. Why is …show more content…
It is a system that is not in the political culture of the region. One of the obstacle that the region is still young to democracy and lack of institutions that can facilitates the propagation of democracy are non-existent and this is represented through support for military coup. For instance, from one of the LAPOP survey on crime and support for military coup is aggravant. The survey showed that a great majority of Latin American country has over 50% of their population who favor a military coup (LAPOP Crime and Coup Support, 2010)2. Similarly, support for In the same token, governments with limited resources are faced with decades of challenges that citizens want rapid and efficient response too. When government are unable to deliver on changes rapidly and the few results created are not as concrete as people would have like, mass protest start to erupt demanding changes in government, often not governance. Although partially democratic, it undermines weak democratic institutions, which by their responses to such a democratic process as protest seems to assume as threat against the government. A great example of this is the government of ex Haitian president Martelly elected by a large majority. Six months after his investiture as president, he started to observe a rise in protest demanding changes into different political institutions. Often these protest would be violent and
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
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.
As the Latin American nations set out to construct a new government and society in the 1800´s, two opposing models aroused regarding which one would best benefit the countries. ¨Civilization vs. Barbarism¨ by Domingo Sarmiento, a recognized Argentinean revolutionary, contrasts Jose Marti´s ¨Our America¨ ideology which critiques U.S. capitalism and focuses on developing a good government based on the needs of the nations and each nation´s autochthony. Contrastingly, Sarmiento, guided by his beliefs in democratic principles, declares his preference towards the European urbanized way of life as the key to progress and stability for the nations. Despite the differences in the models proposed by Marti and Sarmiento for the New Nations to follow,
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”.
Walker, Thomas W and Armony, Ariel C. Repression, Resistance, and Democratic Transition in Latin America. Scholarly Resources Incorporated, 2000. Wilmington, Delaware.
The caudillo system came to be a common form of government in Latin America for several reasons. The first, and most apparent, reason for the establishment of the caudillo system, was the weak, precarious, and unstable governments left in place after independence was achieved. These countries, once colonies, had been under the rule of Spain, which meant that all government control came from an outside source that was imposed upon the inhabitants. Local armies, the only organized group prepared to take control, assumed power once the Spaniards were defeated. The transition from a military government to a government controlled by a "hero" from the army, the caudillo, was both logical and easy.
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
Peeler, John A. Latin American Democracies. Chapel Hill, NC and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Print.
Latin American Independence was the drive for independence from Spain and France by the Latin American people. There were many contributing factors that ultimately led to the uprising of Latin American colonies. Europe's strong hold on the economic and political life of Latin America, was creating friction between the Latin Colonies and the European nations. Eventually, this would become enough for the Latin American people and the drive for independence from France and Spain would begin.
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.
In comparing the average citizen in a democratic nation, say the United States, to that of a non-democratic nation, for instance Egypt, it will be found that the citizen in the democratic nation is generally better off – free of persecution, free from fear of the authorities, and free to express his opinions on governmental matters. And while national conflicts occur everywhere, incidents like violent revolts have shown to be more prevalent in nations where citizens are not allowed to choose who governs them. It is slightly paradoxical that democracy, so inherently flawed in theory, can lead to such successful outcomes in practice. The question, then, becomes: “If democracy has so many weaknesses, why does it work?”
According to Stoner and McFaul when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was defeated and voted out of office in 2000 this turnout allowed for a completion of a successful transition to democracy in Mexico (264). Although a transition did occur and Mexico does have solid democratic foundations, bewildering corruption, poor rule of law, and narco related violence have halted Mexican democratic consolidation.
Democracy is “...the word that resonates in people’s minds and springs from their lips as they struggle for freedom and a better way of life...” (Schmitter and Karl, 1991:75). However, the word democracy has many different means depending on the country and context it is used in. “Every country has is own culture and comes by its political system through its own history” (Greenberg, 2007:101, cited in Li, 2008:4). Li, (2008) states that because of China’s political structure the usual road to democracy may be difficult for it to achieve. The western idea ...
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
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...