A review of Strong Parties and Lame Ducks: Presidential Partyarchy and Factionalism in Venezuela, by Michael Coppedge and Democracy for the Privileged: Crisis and Transition in Venezuela, by Richard S. Hillman.
About the Author
Anibal Romero is a research affiliate at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, where he was a visiting scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies in 1995. He is on temporary leave from Simón Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela, where he is a full professor of political science. His many books include The Decline and Prospects of Venezuelan Democracy (in Spanish, 1994).
A survey of the region yields a patchwork result, with democratic governance faring well in some countries, at a standstill in others, and in the most worrisome cases actively eroding.
In March 2009, El Salvador saw its first peaceful alternation of power since independence, as the FMLN, a former guerilla movement that laid down its arms in 1992, finally won…
