PERIL AND PROMISE The New Democracy in Latin America
Over the past decade and a half, more than a dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries have replaced dictatorships with elected governments. The process began when Ecuador's relatively...
...Democracy is usually spoken of as a form of government, but it is more than that...
...It implies a power vested in the people and exercised-directly or indirectly-in all the institutions in which they participate...
...All the new democracies hold competitive elections, but few-as Raul Benitez Manaut points out-have effective judicial systems, strong parliaments, or civilian control of the military...
...The process began when Ecuador's relatively benign military agreed to return to the barracks in early 1979, and continues through the current struggles of Haiti's democrats to return their elected president to power...
...Democracy is never a settled question...
...In this report, we have attempted to capture the fluid, multi-dimensional nature of Latin America's new democracies...
...While the region's military elites now promote democracy for reasons of social stability, in many countries they weaken it through continuing impunity...
...It is also always threatened, constantly fought for, nurtured and defended...
...Democracy is multi-faceted...
...Uneven economic and social development also causes conflict...
...democracy started out...
...Democracy (from the Greek demos, the people, and kratein, to rule) stands for many things: the rule of the people, rule by the ruled, self-rule, majority rule, minority rights, equal rights, and a general sense of political and social equality...
...This diversity raises some interesting questions about the transition and about the nature of democracy itself...
...How is democracy, for example, expressed in the economy...
...One property holder one vote" was how U.S...
...The creation of democratic law is vital, but only a partial step until everyone can read what the law says...
...Nowhere is it finally at rest...
...The revitalization of democracy is an on-going process-always changing and reaffirming itself...
...It includes the overthrow of two of the region's bloodiest dictatorsNicaragua's Somoza by a social revolution, and Paraguay's Stroessner by a palace coup-and the more gradual (and on-going) displace4I UI . AI1 l ' fJ I M T, IU 1. I ;i A l n Iment 0I e s enera noc eII t. 1ese expeiel esllll vary wlu ly 111 terms of the nature, permanence and decisiveness of the transformation...
...In very few do ethnic minorities have self-governance...
...It embraces-as Carlos Vilas says of civil society"everything from daily life and interpersonal relations in the home to questions of territory, purchasing power, ethnicity, gender and generation...
...Sovereignty over the economy belongs mainly to transnational capital...
...one dollar one vote" holds in the free market...
...Democracy-the rule of the people-implies economic justice, popular participation and civilian rule...
...The retreat of the region's militaries, Nicaragua's constitutional debates, Paraguay's ambiguous electoral process, Chile's rural communitarian traditions, regionwide efforts to build and sustain popular media, and the growth of a genuine civil society are all part of the elaboration of the democratic process in Latin America...
...Though it is fundamentally tied to the question of citizenship and the right to participate in public affairs, democracy exists in both the public and private spheres...
...one man one vote" still holds in many institutions of political and social life...
...Should democracy reward people according to their needs, their contribution, or their purchasing power...
...Almost everywhere limits are imposed by poverty and necessity, and limits are created by the conflicting prerogatives of economic, military, patriarchal and bureaucratic power...
Vol. 27 • September 1993 • No. 2
