Building Democracy In Latin America

Providing a comprehensive, comparative analysis of the democratic experience in Latin, America, the second edition of this widely acclaimed book reflects important new developments both in the region and in the literature on democracy.

"Third, the authors investigate the relationship between major parties and the state, revealing the extent to which parties are dependent on state resources to maintain power and win votes. Fourth, the contributions assess the importance of different electoral regimes for shaping broader patterns of party competition. Finally, and most important, the authors characterize the nature of the party system in each country - how institutionalized it is and how it can be classified."--BOOK JACKET.

After more than a century of assorted dictatorships and innumerable fiscal crises, the majority of Latin America's states are governed today by constitutional democratic regimes. Some analysts and scholars argue that Latin America weathered the 2008 fiscal crisis much better than the United States. How did this happen? Jorge I. Domínguez and Michael Shifter asked area specialists to examine the electoral and governance factors that shed light on this transformation and the region's prospects. They gather their findings in the fourth edition of Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America. This new edition is completely updated. Part I is thematic, covering issues of media, constitutionalism, the commodities boom, and fiscal management vis-à-vis governance. Part II focuses on eight important countries in the region—Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Already widely used in courses, Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America will continue to interest students of Latin American politics, democratization studies, and comparative politics as well as policymakers.

Kalman Silvert highlights the extraordinary career of an extraordinary man-one of the founding architects of Latin American studies in the United States, a major builder of the inter-American scholarly community, and an influential figure in US-Latin American relations. Thirteen distinguished Latin Americanists discuss Silvert's role as scholar, teacher, mentor, colleague, public intellectual, institution builder, and philanthropist. They also emphasize his contributions at the Ford Foundation, where he served as senior program adviser from 1967 until his death in 1976. Coeditors Abraham Lowenthal and Martin Weinstein frame the retrospective, underlining the integration of Silvert's multiple contributions and the continuing relevance of his legacy.

The transition to democracy underway in Latin America since the 1980s has recently witnessed a resurgence of interest in experimenting with new forms of local governance emphasizing more participation by ordinary citizens. The hope is both to foster the spread of democracy and to improve equity in the distribution of resources. While participatory budgeting has been a favorite topic of many scholars studying this new phenomenon, there are many other types of ongoing experiments. In Barrio Democracy in Latin America, Eduardo Canel focuses our attention on the innovative participatory programs launched by the leftist government in Montevideo, Uruguay, in the early 1990s. Based on his extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Canel examines how local activists in three low-income neighborhoods in that city dealt with the opportunities and challenges of implementing democratic practices and building better relationships with sympathetic city officials.

This book analyses the normative and institutional aspects of the civil-military relationship to demonstrate that it is the politics of the relationship rather than its form that influences the likelihood of democracy and regional peace. It is useful for policymakers, academics, and general readers.