Delegative Democracy Revisited: Ecuador Under Correa

Issue Date July 2016
Volume 27
Issue 3
Page Numbers 109-118
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Governing for nearly a decade, President Rafael Correa took Ecuador down a path of gradual regime change that stripped away horizontal and vertical accountability. The 2009 constitution served as point a departure for an unprecedented centralization of power in the executive branch. In a pattern similar to Venezuela under Chávez, Correa crafted organic laws and executive decrees that eroded civil liberties and extended state regulation over civil society. The project to extend Correa’s rule through indefinite reelection ran aground in 2015 as the government grappled with a collapse in public finances when revenues from petroleum exports rapidly declined. Uncertainty about the future of the regime reigns as Ecuadorans prepare for the 2017 national elections.

About the Author

Catherine M. Conaghan is the Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Latin American Politics at Queen’s University, Canada. 

View all work by Catherine M. Conaghan