The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America: Advances and Setbacks

by Frances Hagopian; Scott P. Mainwaring

• ISBN13: 9780511126505
• ISBN10: 0511126506
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-06-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The late twentieth century witnessed the birth of an impressive number of new democracies in Latin America. This wave of democratization since 1978 has been by far the broadest and most durable in the history of Latin America, but many of the resulting democratic regimes also suffer from profound deficiencies. What caused democratic regimes to emerge and survive? What are their main achievements and shortcomings? This volume offers an ambitious and comprehensive overview of the unprecedented advances as well as the setbacks in the post-1978 wave of democratization. It seeks to explain the sea change from a region dominated by authoritarian regimes to one in which openly authoritarian regimes are the rare exception, and it analyzes why some countries have achieved striking gains in democratization while others have experienced erosions. The book presents general theoretical arguments about what causes and sustains democracy and analyses of nine compelling country cases.

Table of Contents

Introduction: the third wave of democratization in Latin America

Latin American democratization since 1978: democratic transitions, breakdowns, and erosions

Three Democratic Giants with Authoritarian Pasts: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico

Argentina: democratic survival amidst economic failure

The growing sustainability of Brazil's low-quality democracy

The demise of Mexico's one-party dominant regime: elite choices and the masses in the establishment of democracy

Unexpected Democracies in Unlikely Countries: Bolivia, El Salvador, and Guatemala

Bolivia's democracy at the crossroads

Challenges to political democracy in El Salvador

Democracy on ice: the multiple challenges of Guatemala's peace process

Democratic Erosion in The Third Wave: Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela

From 'restricted' to 'besieged': the changing nature of the limits to democracy in Colombia

Peru 1980âÇô2000: chronicle of a death foretold? determinism, political decisions, and open outcomes

Explaining democratic deterioration in Venezuela through nested inference

Conclusions

Conclusions: Government performance, political representation, and public perceptions of contemporary democracy in Latin America

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