Kurt Weyland is the Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas–Austin. His books include Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism During the Interwar Years (2021).
Latin American social policy has at times worked backwards, widening rather than narrowing economic and social inequalities. But new conditional cash-transfer programs seem to be producing positive outcomes.
The strains of economic reform have not increased support for antidemocratic populism in Latin America, but they have led to acute dissatisfaction with democratic governments.
The most striking thing about Fernando de la Rua’s presidential victory in Argentina was the routine-even boring-character of the elections. This turn toward normalization is a major break with the…
