Challenges to democracy in the Andes: strongmen, broken constitutions, and regimes in crisis

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the principal threat to democracy in the Andean region has not come from the traditional military coup, according to the editors of this volume. Instead, problems arise when the elected leaders become intent on executive aggrandizement, in order to carry out projects of radical change and to enhance personal power. These undemocratic moves have often garnered the approval of segments of the population. In the cases of Colombia and Peru, democracy has proven to be manifestly defective, while its façade has remained standing. In the opening theoretical chapter and in his fine conclusion to the book, Maxwell Cameron argues against a ‘checklist approach to democratization that reifies particular institutions’ (p. 203). Neo-liberalism has failed to deliver on its promise in Latin America, so the institutional apparatus of liberal democracy cannot be the only game in town. Within a general framework of polyarchy, and given typically multiparty systems in the region, the existence of particular (democratic) institutions is not enough to separate regimes into democracies and autocracies. Instead, the true sign of democracy lies in the orderly change in power, between outgoing and newly incumbent governing parties (p. 217). By this measure, strongmen like Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa fell woefully short during their time in power.