October 2026, Volume 37, Issue 4
Autocrats look invincible until their allies start to walk away. Defections have brought down regimes from Guatemala to Hungary, and they can be engineered: Raise the costs of standing with the autocrat and ease the path out.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Democratic backsliding is usually seen as something driven by presidents, but under certain circumstances elected legislatures can cause it, too. Legislative hegemony is a growing danger.
October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4
Almost no one expected a little-known candidate to defeat the ruling antidemocratic regime at the ballot box. But the Guatemalan opposition, backed by the international community, exploited the criminal oligarchy’s fissures to halt the country’s authoritarian slide.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
Recent high-profile scandals have laid bare persistent shortcomings of Latin American democracy that, if unaddressed, could prove fatal.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Following the settlement of the revolutionary conflicts that long plagued the region, the left was able to reach power through elections. But the results have been discouraging.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are weighed down by high crime, sluggish economies, and heavy reliance on remittances. And when significant political change has taken place, it has resulted in frightening political fragmentation.
April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2
Strange and unsettling turns of events further roiled the already-troubled waters of Guatemalan political life in 2009, driving the crime-ridden country’s shaky democracy to the brink.
Nowadays some politicians cry “fraud” even before the election. Too often the accusation has nothing to do with electoral manipulation. It has become a weapon to attack institutions, justify antidemocratic measures, and reject election results.
Of course not. But the region’s democratic hopes are fighting an uphill battle against corruption, crime, and a violent past.
They are organized, nonviolent, and they have come out in great numbers. Guatemalans may also be writing the script on how to defeat democracy’s enemies.
Almost no one thought that an underdog political reformer could defeat Guatemala’s corrupt political machine, but Bernardo Arévalo did just that. Now comes the hard part.
