CHAPTER 13
Making Democracies Work
CHAPTER 14
Promoting Democracy Effectively
Can countries that just went through democratization
remain democracies and up to a level that their
people think as worth having?
Reasons for poor democratic
performance:
-
Poor governance
Predatory state
Lack of civic culture
Overcoming a predatory state
1)
Horizontal relations of trust and cooperation
- civil society
2) Effective institutions
- Rule of law
- Freedom of information
- Anti-corruption bodies
- Ombudsman’s office
- Public audits
- Parliament oversight committees
- Independent judicial system
- Economic regulatory institutions
- Electoral commission
3) Institutions linking people to the political
process
4) Economic reforms
Promoting Democracy
Effectively

International efforts
 NEDs
 counterpart organizations

For democracy efforts to work
- local ownership
- aid to institutions promoting democracy
- realistic expectations
- scale

Conditioning development assistance
 USAID’s report in 2002, “Foreign aid in
the National Interest”

Liberation technology
- internet, social media
- overcome censorship
- mobilize and civic actions
CH15 Physician, Heal
Thyself
Meng-Hsin Chen
INTL 190
How Americans think of politics in
America?
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Low levels of confidence in the leaders of
both parties
Anger at the disproportionate power
Impatience with the polarization of political
life
Powerless to change things
Citizen has no voice and is unpresented
Problems
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Political corruption
Influence peddling
Abuse of liberties
Decline of constitutionalism
Polarization of partisan politics
Corruptions

Public corruption crimes
“The fact is that the struggle against
corruption is global, and no country or
culture has a special purchase on morality”
– page.350
Earmark

Also called “pork-barrel” – funds that use to
spend for particular projects

Between 1998 and 2005, spending on
federal lobbying increased by 60%, $2.28
billion
Reduce the purchase influence

Greater transparency
 Grassroots
 Stealth

Watchdog group
Enhancing participation

Voter turnout rate is significantly low

the idea of mandatory voting

Interest in politics
Bridging the Partisan Divide

Declining incidence of “bipartisan”

“vanishing marginals”

Partisan polarization
 Move from “closed” to “partially open”
Changing the system

Proportional representation (PR)

Alternative vote (AV)
 Also know as the “instant run-off”
Size of the House of
Representatives


“the size of the lower house of Congress
has been fixed at 435 members, but the
population of the United State has more
than tripled.”
“this may be one reason – underappreciated
in most commentaries – why people more
and more feel disconnected from
government.”
Towards a better democracy

Education and mobilization of the citizens
themselves

“ask not what your country can do for you –
ask what you can do for your country”
Chapter 2: Transitions
and Continuities
Rosalina Saenz
Transitions in Latin America
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Transitions- In the 1980s and 1990s
Establishment and consolidation of
democratic Regimes
Outcome of transitions
Types of Authoritarian Regime

Personalist dictatorships
 Tend to be more conflict prone, leaders are usually from
military ranks
 Sultanism
 Institutional authoritarian regime
 Power belonging to committees, bureaucracies or
institutions
 Military Junta
 Bureaucratic authoritarian regime
Are development and democracy
linked?

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Does democracy require socio-economic development?
Modernization Theory
Hypothesis
 Socioeconomic development is a necessary precondition for
democracy
 Development is necessary for the consolidation of democracy
“Over time, the association between economic development and
political democracy lost its empirical force”
The impact of social classes

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Political transitions result from pressures of societal demands
Cycle- 1900-1930
 Democratization after independence was controlled by the elite
 Ex. Argentina
Cycle- 1940-1977
 Largely affected by the middle class
 Countries reached democracy during this time period
 Authoritarian regimes seized power once more
 Mexico an exception
The impact of social classes
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Cycle- 1978-2000
Working class more involved
 Protests, strikes
 Middle class felt excluded from the decision process=electoral
reform
 Challenging authoritarian regime
Transition via ruptura
Transition via reforma
Strategies of liberalization by authoritarian regime
“bargaining games”
Conclusions


Outcomes of transitions
All transitions do not lead to democracy
Chapter 3
The Military
Heading for the Exits?
Forging Fatherlands
•“According to military folklore in Latin America, the armed forces are not merely apart
of the nation—they created the nation” -pg. 74
•Militaries provided: resistance to intermittent European intrusions, fought wars
against other Latin American countries and combated in civil wars that broke out.
•European influence separated the military further from civil society
•Ex: Chile invited Germany and Peru and Brazil invited France for military missions
•“All these developments combined to strengthen belief in an unwavering
commitment to defense of the fatherland—La Partia—as the grand historical mission
of the Latin American militaries” –pg. 75
•Questions:
•Was this Ideology a convenient justification for their actions?
•What drives the military into politics? (Box 3.1)
Patterns of Participation
•Analyzes the militaries central roles in Latin American politics by presenting
data on golpes de estado and successful coups from 1900-2000 (Fig. 3.1) .
•Three Key Periods:
1. Crisis of Oligarchy (1910-19)
2. The era of the Great Depression (golpes)
3. The 1960s and 1970s (coups)
•Military regimes vs. Dictatorships – Four critical variables (Smith):
1.Whether the power structure within the regime is personalistic or
collegial
2.Whether the military as and institution takes part in governmental
decision making
3.Whether the regime has a distinct ideological orientation, and if so, what
it is
4.The societal base of civilian support for military rule.
Patterns of Participation
•During the 1960s & 1970s, institutional regimes came into the forefront,
which had long-term commitments to ideological programs.
Reformist/Inclusionary regimes: Create a popular base of support for
military rule by mobilizing new sets of political actors around reformist
programs (targeted: lower middle class and lower urban and rural class)
Reactionary/Exclusionary regimes: Central goal is the
demobilization.
Popular groups become opposition to military rule rather than support.
(targeted: middle and upper class support)
•“In all cases the ideological commitment embraced a series of tenets—
anticommunism, economic liberalism, insistence on morality, devotion to la
patria, and belief in the inherent virtues of law and order.” –pg.83
•“A common feature of all military regimes is their declaration that at some
future point, elections will take place and democracy will take root” –pg. 84
Wars Against Subversion
•The Cold War’s affects on Latin America came as a pressing
matter after Cuba’s successful revolution in 1959 due to its
proximity to the region.
•Castro made serious efforts to destabilize Venezuala
The 1960s had an explosion of over 30 guerilla movements
throughout Latin America.
•“Military authorities throughout the region concurred that this
would be a long-term struggle. If and when they seized power,
they would establish military regimes for sufficient periods of
time to cleanse society, purge politics and economic
development” –pg. 86
The Democrats’ Dilemma:
To Amnesty or not?
• A critical challenge for the new democracies of the 1980s and 1990s has
been establishing authority over the military.
Stephan Alfred argued, the struggles of this challenge take place in
two dimensions:
1. Concerns of “contestation” over military-related policy, such
as the definition of the military mission and the size of the military
budget.
2. Concerns of military “prerogatives” internal to the military,
such as promotions, doctrines, deployments, and strategies.
Bargaining between civilian and military leaders can result in significant
tradeoffs – e.g. Argentina and Chile
Modes Of Interaction:
The Armed Forces and Democracy
Question: Whether the most recent cycle of democratization in Latin
America has assured civilian control over the armed forces?
• Does not meet criteria for democracy of full civilian control over the
military and their subordination to civil institutions.
• Military does not hold the power they once did of plausible coups, due
to the end of the Cold War and the end to the war on subversion.
• Continued to have influence, seeking to keep prerogatives and in some
cases through contestation.
Civil-military relations of this kind lead to four different patterns in
the 1980s and 1990s (Smith):
1. Military Control
2. Military Tutelage
3. Conditional military subordination
4. Civilian Control
Has the Military Left?
Questions:
1. Are armed forces really retreating from the political arena?
2. Are they likely to return?
3. Why have they tolerated the rise of civilian authority?
Factors to consider (Smith):
•
Relative absence of major threats to national security
• End of plausible threat of subversion (end of Cold War)
• La Patria is safe
• Economic elites, closely allied to armed forces in the Southern Cone,
face little immediate danger
• From a military standpoint, armed forces have accomplished their
mission. (Done its job well)
• Military not exile, but honing their capabilities and enhancing their
readiness
Conclusion (Smith): “No doubt about the survival of armed forces in Latin
America” –pg. 106
Chapter 4: Global
Contexts, International
Forces
Vishal Natarajan
Main Themes

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The Role of the US in promoting democracy
in Latin America. What are US motives?
The impact of multilateral organizations on
democratization.
Democracy promotion vs. doctrine of
national sovereignity.
Imperialism and Democracy
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The Legacy of Imperialism
“We are friends of constitutional government
in America….I am going to teach the South
American Republics to elect good men!” Woodrow Wilson (pg. 110)
US Military Interventions: in the name of
democracy? Or self-interest?
1932: FDR’s “Good Neighbor Policy”
Cold War
Truman, 1947: “It must be a policy of the United
States to support free peoples who are resisting
the attempted subjugation by armed minorities or
by outside pressures.”
 Inter-American Military Collaboration
 Containment Policy
 “It is better to have a strong regime in power than
a liberal one if it is indulgent and relaxed and
penetrated by Communists.” - George Kennan

Cold War Continued
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Stemming Tides of the Revolution
Displacing Inconvenient Democracies
Economic Crisis
Overall Impact of Cold War on Democracy
in Latin America
Post-Cold War Developments
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The Globalization Era: The importance of
economic spheres of influence/decline of
overt military interventions.
The Impact of Multilateral Organizations
New, post-9/11 context? (less supportive of
democracy?)
Questions Raised


Have U.S. policies had an overall positive
impact on democratization? OR does the
U.S. invoke the name of democracy to
justify intervention while really pursuing
short-term, ulterior poli/econ/social motives?
Does relatively recent success of multilateral
organizations prove Diamond right?
Exploring Institutional
Alternatives
Jordan M. Marquez
The Terms of Debate
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Denouncing Armed Forces
Condemning the United States
Internal Social Conflicts
Latin American Democracy itself
From Leadership to System
Institutional Design*
Envisioning Alternatives
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Presidential vs. Parliamentary Governments
Separation vs. Fusion Paradox
Pro-Parliamentary Arguments
Presidentialism tends to have:
 Temporal Rigidity
 Winner-Take-All
 Dual Democratic Legitimacy
Counter-Arguments
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Virtues of Executive Stability
Separation of Executive and Legislative
Powers
Popular Election is more democratic
Other factors at fault
Societal Conditions
SemiPresidentialism/Parliamentarism

“A president elected by direct vote of the
citizenry, and a prime minister (and cabinet)
selected by and beholden to the legislature.
In principle, this would combine the
advantages of direct democratic election
and stable tenure (for the president) with the
flexibility of a parliamentary cabinet and
prime minister.”
Attempts At Reform
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Brazil: Voice of the Voters
Argentina: Calculating Political Odds
Chile: A Pact for Presidentialism
Why Not?
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Right to directly vote could not be easily
replaced.
Public opinion polling
Low faith in Congress and political parties
Politics of Nostalgia
Varieties of
Presidentialism
Jordan M. Marquez
Executive Power
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Epicenter of Latin America Politics
Personalismo
Rotation of chief executives
Means of Election
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Plurality
Majority Runoff (MRO)
To Reelect or Not?
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More impediment than safeguard?
Transition to “semidemocratic”
Punctuated Reelection
Sources of Power
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Constitutional and Partisan
Proactive or Reactive
Authority to issue decrees
The Legislative Branch
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Historically Weak
Offered Legitimation
Training Grounds
Third Cycle of Political Change
Electoral Systems and Rules of
Representation

Single Member Districts (SMD)
• US HOR and British Parliament

Duverger’s Law
 M=1 leads to 2 party systems

Proportional Representation (PR)
 Multi-Party System
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Mixed Systems
Closed List vs. Open List
Electoral Cycles
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Concurrent Elections
Asynchronous
Reelection and Term Limits
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Time for Legislation to Develop
“If legislatures are weak, members will be
inclined to move on to more important
positions instead of seeking reelection; if
reelection rates are very low, legislatures will
remain weak”
Voting and Voting Records
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Accountability
Protection of legislative autonomy
No outside pressures
Institutional Performance
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Reactive rather than proactive
Presence of Opposition
“Workable” and “Recalcitrant”
Toppling Presidents
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Impeachment or Quasi-Impeachment
Resurgence of checks and Balances?
Divided Governments
Accusations of corruption
Economic Policy
Parties and Party Systems
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Effective Number of Parties
High Levels of Institutionalization?
Quality of Democracy
THE END