This essay documents a tendency toward democratic decline in Latin America in the last two decades. We note, however, that the modal regional pattern is not decline but democratic stagnation. We conceptualize democratic stagnation as a situation in which democracies have important and persistent democratic deficits. Three factors have contributed to the widespread pattern of stagnation in Latin America: powerful actors that block democratic deepening; poor governing results that fuel dissatisfaction and pave the way for authoritarian populists; and “hybrid states” that violate citizens’ rights, fail to provide security and quality public services, and are captured by powerful interests.
About the Authors
Scott Mainwaring
Scott Mainwaring is Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and the coeditor (with Tarek Masoud) of Democracy in Hard Places (2022).
Aníbal Pérez-Liñán is professor of political science and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author (with Scott Mainwaring) of “Cross-Currents in Latin America,” which appeared in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Democracy.
The sudden and surprising downfall of President Alberto Fujimori has opened the way for a return to democracy in Peru, but the country’s new leaders will face major challenges in…
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…
Brazil’s charismatic former president is back, but there will be no honeymoon for the left. He won by a sliver, and his opponents on the right were empowered by the…