Democracy in Latin America Essay

After the age of enlightenment, colonies and nations around the world began questioning their rulers and ruling nations. Liberal and nationalist ideas spread across Europe and the world, especially after the French Revolution. When these beliefs spread to the colonies of America, independence movements and revolts occurred. The Latin American revolution and Haitian revolution were both significant events during the 19th century that affected both their respective nations and the world. While both revolutions resulted similarly such that a social hierarchy based on race existed after independence, they differ in that while the Latin American revolutions placed an emphasis on ending the Spanish casta system, Haitian revolution was based on freeing slaves.

What is democracy? According to the online version of the Miriam Webster dictionary, democracy is "government by the people" also "is a government in which supreme power is invested by the people and it is exercised by the people directly or indirectly through a representational system in which periodically held free elections." Venezuela as well as other countries in Latin America has undergone constant changes in their democracy, produced by their rulers. The primary function of the government is to ensure the safety of the state, its territory and its inhabitants. Also their objective is to strength the democratic institutions that ensure the democratic liberties and rights. Unfortunately, not all the leaders are capable of respecting

America and Haiti are both democratic states but one is often viewed as the poster child for democracy- while the other’s democracy is on the verge of collapsing. While Corruption and politics goes hand in hand the systematic structure set within political systems is what differentiates a legitimate state from a failed or weak state . In countries where the political system have been successful in seamlessly integrating itself into the society, by providing for its citizens, politics goes unnoticed. In instances where the state failed to provide the basic necessities for its people , politics is a matter of life or death, it no longer becomes a matter of

Latin America cannot be categorized as one homogenous block. In spite of sharing multiple aspects—culture, language, and history—there is not a single standard culture that distinguishes the region. One aspect of Latin American culture, regarding foreign policy, is a prevalent respect for the norm of sovereignty and non-intervention. There exists a strong disposition to follow international law as a means to prevent war or at the very least ward-off potential intervention by extraregional powers. Accordingly, the factor of self-interests and self-preservation creates a divergent spectrum of foreign policies within these countries. Thus, there is a unique propensity of domestic politics—primarily from those leaders in

However, Latin American countries are facing challenges regarding how democracy is played out in each country. As someone who has witnessed democracy in Honduras, it is clear that there are numerous challenges the country is facing. Not only Honduras, but other Latin American countries have

It is impossible to separate the history of military dictatorships in Latin America from the history of economic exploitation and of US intervention in the region. The history of slavery and other forced labor in the pursuit of large-scale agriculture and resource extraction in the time of the colonies has created a legacy of economic exploitation. This poverty and inequality has in many cases led to popular uprisings and calls for reform, which provided the reason (or the excuse, depending on your point of view) to use military force to restore discipline. The United States' willingness to support strong regimes capable of securing its interests in the region also has played a decisive role. These

Ecuador, my home country, is a small nation located in South America. As many other countries in the region, Ecuador has had a very turbulent history where democracy has always been under threat. For several decades, my family has been intimately connected with this struggle for democratic values, advocating freedom of speech even when those in power have tried their best to silence it.

The most important information in this chapter primarily discusses the new liberal themed republics in Latin America countries except Brazil and their unsuccessful effect on the nation. The author correspondingly comments on the newly independent governments, challenges and lack of resources explaining why democracy and liberalism were unlikely to happen due to the entrenched conservative’s hierarchies of the time.

Democracy can be defined as a rule of law, where all citizens have equal opportunity to participate in fair and free elections. This particular governmental system can be difficult to establish in a country that is not ready to adhere to the specific criteria it demands. Since the colonial period, Latin America has had difficulties establishing a true government system based on efficiency that evenly caters to all people. However, Costa Rica is one of the oldest democratic countries in Central America. Democracy has aided in Costa Rica's establishment of a cohesive nation through the factors that include, economic, social, and political stability.

Economic development does not play a clear causal role for Latin America, although often economic stagnation does undermine the legitimacy of military governments (e.g Peru and Ecuador). Snowballing might have played a role for the democratisation in 1990 in Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, but Huntington mentions that the desire for democracy must exist for snowballing to work. The policies of external actors like the US have been important for the promotion of democracy during the beginning of the third wave; however, this influence has been waning and some of the (possible) members of the third wave are not as susceptible to US influence. Examples include the Middle East and the undemocratic nations in Africa. Within Latin America, the importance of pacts between ‘softliners’ from the dominant (undemocratic) regime and moderates from the opposition has been highlighted. But we see the need to adopt a separate noncooperative model for the post-communist world. Here, the importance of elite pacts has been limited but mass movements from the below have led to stable democracies unlike in the rest of the third wave where this has largely led to instability. Michael McFaul points out that it is the distribution of power

As these quotes indicate, quite surprisingly, it has been leftist factions that have provided the most unifying factor in aiding the struggle for democracy in Latin America. Jorge Castanada speak of the "democratic imperative" of the Left and asserted unequivocally that "in the immense majority of cases, it has been the Left that has played the most responsible role in the struggle for democracy, both under authoritarian regimes or in periods of transition" (Romero 29). It is the Left that has replaced the revolution with democracy as the central theme of political and intellectual debate (Romero 29). Despite the fact that the Left is now demonstrating an unequivocal support of democracy, some experts feel that this representation is inaccurate, to say the least. This group believes that the Latin American learning process is "incomplete and simplistic" due to the "confused and dangerous thralldom to socialism" exhibited by Left wing leaders (Romero 29).

This paper’s aim is to advise the Latin American countries on how they can best establish and fortify a new democracy while avoiding democratic decline and breakdown. The Latin American region is a colonial product of Spain and Portugal. Spain and Portugal controlled the region through a rigid class system, a social pyramid. The rigid class system, the high influence of the catholic church, and the rise of nationalism was some of the key factors in Latin American rebellion against their colonizers. Hence, the Latin America region has a strong military influence. The rigid class system established by Spain and Portugal still has a significant influence in Latin America today. The Latin America region is one of the most unequal regions in the world. Latin America’s strong military influence hinders its road to democracy. A civilian control of the military, a robust, fully enforced tax system, democratic bridging social capital, are the best three ways Latin America can achieve a new strong democracy. To prove these points, I will begin this essay by briefly assessing the state of democracy in Latin America today, mainly focusing on its successes, improvements, failures, and challenges. Furthermore, I will identify the most alarming problems with the state of democracy in Latin America so we could

All Latin America except for Cuba are democratic. By the end of the 20th century, nearly every country has elections that are contesting at regular intervals without military interference (History World, 2017). There are two main political parties in Latin America. They are the Liberals who are referred to as left-of-center and the Conservatives who are referred to as right-of-center. Both parties benefitted from positive economic conditions. Like the United States, Latin American politics and government seem to be cyclical with the political changes at regular intervals. People are going to vote for the party they believe are going to improve their lives. Often this means that people think that a change in the political party that is in office

“Government of people, by people and for the people is called democracy”, (Aristotle) the Greek or more precisely Aristotle defined democracy this way. In these recent times though, democracy has changed in shape and form and has constantly evolved since the last 100 years or so. So it is quite difficult to find a definition of democracy in modern times, which is accepted universally. Every country delineates democracy according to its own customs and ethics, and considers it to be best. A common credence is that, a country prerequisites democracy in order to prosper, but we have not got any subsequent evident between democracy and GDP progression. Under developed countries in Asia, South America and Asia don’t hold a candle to most

Developing nations have undergone many transformations in terms of governance, education, infrastructure, economy and on human rights issues. Developing countries have utilized a lot of concepts and practices in order to meet society needs. Over the last decade, African countries had dictatorial leaders, but since the beginning of this century, revolutions have taken place, a very good example is the fall of Gaddafi's, Mubarak's governments in Libya and Egypt respectively. Democracy is a process where people reach consensus in regulations, policies on human rights, laws, and structure of the society. Democracy is essential in maintaining social justice, equity, fair and equal economic opportunities for all citizens. A democratic government has branches and institutions for implementation, formulation and enhancement of policies and laws; a basic democratic government has the judiciary, the legislature, the Executive and most recently the Civil Society (Robinson, 2001).