AUTHORITARIANISM AND DEMOCRACY READINGS MLA chs 4 13
- Slides: 14
AUTHORITARIANISM AND DEMOCRACY
READINGS MLA, chs 4, 13 (Central America and “Dynamics of Political Transformation”) MLA Website, Document 10 (Rigoberta Menchú)
OUTLINE 1. Concepts: democracy and authoritarianism 2. Electoral variations 3. Transitions, To and Fro 4. Caveats
KEY QUESTIONS What explains the spread of democracy in Latin America? Given authoritarian past? What kind of democracy? What quality? What’s new about the current phase of democratic change? How does it compare to prior periods? What role (if any) for the United States? What implications for U. S. relations with Latin America?
DEFINING PRINCIPLES • Participation, such that no substantial segment of the population is excluded from the effective pursuit of political power • Competition, such that there are free, fair, and regular contests for gaining support from the populace • Accountability, such that political rulers and elected representatives serve as “agents” of their constituents and must justify their actions and decisions in order to remain in office.
CATEGORIES OF ELECTORAL REGIMES Electoral democracy = free and fair elections Semidemocracy = elections free but not fair; or, effective power not vested in winner of elections Competitive oligarchy = elections fair but not free; candidates restricted to socio-economic elite and suffrage restricted to minority of population Autocracy/authoritarianism = no elections, or elections neither free not fair.
CODING PROCEDURES 19 países de la región (excluding Cuba) 1900 -2000 (101 years) Example: Argentina 1900 -1915 1916 -1929 1930 -1931 1932 -1942 1943 -1945 1946 -1950 1951 -1954 1955 -1957 1958 -1961 1962 1963 -1965 1966 -1972 1973 -1975 1976 -1982 1983 -2000 oligarchic democratic nondemocratic semidemocratic nondemocratic nondemocratic
Types of Authoritarian Regime ________Power Structure__________ Personalist Institutionalized Leadership ______ Military Civilian Traditional Caudillo or “Man on Horseback” Collective Junta or Bureaucratic-Authoritarian Regime Technocratic State, Delegative Semi-Democracy, or Sultanistic Despotism One-Party State or Corporatist Regime
Outcomes of Political Transitions, 1900 -2000 1900 -1939 ___ %___ 1940 -1977 ___%____ 1978 -2000 ___ %___ 1900 -2000 ___%____ Outcome____ Autocracy Oligarchy Semidemocracy Democracy N transitions 45 36 11 9 47 6 20 27 17 -40 43 39 15 22 24 56 64 35 155
Caveats “A weak state is a weak democracy” Taming of democracy vs. incompetent governance Democracy by permission And then: the rise of the “new left”