Democracy as the only game in town in Latin América

One step forward... and two steps back?

Abstract

During the last quarter of the 20th Century, Latin America experienced transitions to democracy putting an end to a long cycle of military dictatorships. Likewise, as the UNDP 2021 Report underscores, the region’s 1980-2020 rate of economic growth is only half of what was before 1980. Latin America is still the world’s most unequal region in terms of per capita income. This article explores the failure of political democracy to escape the economic doldrums of the recent four decades. It analyzes the democratic and hyperpresidentialist panaceas that prevail since 1980 and their decline. Democracy failed to implement effective responses to the transformations Latin American societies were experiencing beginning in the 1970’s in the context of the metamorphosis of capitalism, i.e. (1) the gradual breakdown of state regulation, (2) the novel challenges encountered by democracies, and (3) the weakening of social cohesion. Democratic transitions brought about the end of military dictatorships indeed. However, and turning over the known adage -i.e. that democracy became the only game in town- it is apparent that problems grew worse with the transitions. This was the result precisely because in becoming the only game, democratic political processes discarded the informal, although less than virtuous, tools of the regímenes de compromiso that had prevailed during the state-centric period of the mid-20th Century.