Peru: The Danger of Powerless Democracy

Abstract

Peru‘s democracy is dying. The country made international headlines after a cycle of political instability that left behind seven presidents in seven years, a failed coup, and 60 people dead after violent protests and brutal repression by the government. However, unlike the usual stories about democracy falling prey to the military or a popular strongman dismantling it from within, Peru‘s democracy is dying not from power concentration but from power dilution. Electoral fragmentation, political amateurism, and weak linkages with society have left politics populated by politicians willing to break democratic norms to make short-term gains. We call that process “democratic hollowing.”