The occasion of honouring the memory of John Brooks, a great friend of
Latin America, has helped me vanquish my initial reluctance to tackle a
topic that is as broad, varied and still open-ended as the present situation
of democracy in South America. As a first measure of my limitations, with
the exception of some references to Costa Rica and Mexico, I will not
discuss Central America and the Caribbean, not because I feel these
regions are unimportant but because, simply, I do not know enough
about them. However, when I feel that I am on sufficiently solid ground
so as to refer to Latin America as a whole, I will do so.I begin by noting that in contemporary South America some countries
satisfy the definition of political democracy. Those countries share two
main characteristics. One is that they hold elections under universal adult
franchise that, at least at the national level, are reasonably fair and
competitive. These are standard criteria in the political science literature.
However, having in mind the experience of Latin America and elsewhere
in the third world, I believe that we should add that such elections must
be institutionalised. By this I mean that all relevant actors expect that
elections of this kind will continue being held in the indefinite future so,
whether they like or not, it is rational for them to play democracy, not
coup-making or insurrection. We should also stipulate that these elections
are decisive, in the sense that those who are elected do occupy the
respective offices and end their terms in the constitutionally prescribed
way; they are not, as it has happened too often in Latin America,
prevented from occupying office or thrown out of it because some supra-constitutional power feels that they are the ‘wrong people’.The second characteristic is the enjoyment of certain political rights,
especially of opinion, expression, association, movement and access to
a reasonably free and pluralist media. Of course, these and other rights
are important per se; in addition, they are instrumental – necessary
conditions – for the effectuation of the kind of elections I have just
specified.
