Political Institutional Change in Latin America

Fabio Fossati

Working Papers - Programa Teoría de las Relaciones Internacionales from Argentine Center of International Studies

Abstract: The last wave of democratization occurred in the 80s, after the big economic failure (except Pinochet in Chile) of military regimes. The 80s, after the debt crisis, were still characterized by uncertainty and seemed to mark just another episode (in favor of democracy) of the “pendulum practice”. There were still both populist (Peru, Venezuela, Brazil) and bureaucratic (Mexico) governments. In Argentina, there was a conflict between a populist president and his técnicos. Chile’s transition to democracy occurred at the end of the decade. In synthesis, during the “pendulum phase”, both populist and bureaucratic decision making processes were highly illiberal, and below the minimum conditions of democracy. In fact, controls (by parties or groups) on the governments’ decisions were very limited.

Keywords: political change; pendulum practice; democracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-his and nep-lam

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