United States Intervention in Latin America: Effects on Democracy During the Cold War

Abstract

Throughout the Cold War, the United States intervened numerous times in various Latin American countries, often covertly. As a democratic intervener, the US promoted the idea that these interventions ushered in democratization. To analyze whether this idea is validated by the data, the average change in democracy is calculated across all interventions. Then, the data is disaggregated by method of intervention to evaluate whether there is any significant difference in democratization based on the method. The study finds that US intervention did lead to a significant change in democracy and, when excluding outliers, the overall change was negative. Additionally, the study finds that when a US-backed coup occurs, the overall change in democracy was negative, compared to an average increase in democracy when lower-level interference is utilized.