When voters are asked to cast ballots for or against important national policies — whether to draft or adopt a new constitution, to abolish or reinstate term limits, or, perhaps most famously, to leave or remain in the European Union — they take that job seriously. Yet national referendums are not always put forward in good faith. Sometimes they are used to circumvent democratic checks and balances. Ecuador is a case in point. “Mechanisms of direct democracy in Ecuador have been particularly attractive to presidents,” writes Eduardo Pagés in a new Journal of Democracy online excusive, “because they serve as a shortcut, a low-cost alternative to the traditional legislative process.”
The Journal of Democracy essays below, free for a limited time, chronicle how presidents in Ecuador and elsewhere in Latin America have been using referendums and what it has meant for democracy in their countries.
Why Democracy by Referendum Seldom Works
Ecuador’s presidents have a history of asking the public to back their initiatives rather than building political coalitions to accomplish their goals. The country’s current president is no different — and it comes at a high cost.
Eduardo PagésCross-Currents in Latin America
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.
Aníbal Pérez-Liñán and Scott Mainwaring
The Rise of Legislative Authoritarianism
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.
Paolo Sosa-Villagarcia, José Incio, and Moisés Arce
Delegative Democracy Revisited: Ecuador Under Correa
Competitive authoritarian regimes, though not democratic, feature arenas of contestation in which opposition forces can challenge, and even oust, authoritarian incumbents.
Catherine M. ConaghanThe Pushback Against Populism: Why Ecuador’s Referendums Backfired
Populists have often turned to referendums to dismantle a democracy. Democrats should be wary of turning to the same tool to rebuild what was lost. It may only pave the way for populism’s return.
Felipe Burbano de Lara and Carlos de la Torre
Latin America Erupts: Ecuador’s Return to the Past
Reformist leaders offered order, stability, and progress. But the country’s deep-seated political pathologies have proven far more durable than their promises.
John Polga-Hecimovich and Francisco Sánchez
Latin America’s Authoritarian Drift: Technocratic Populism in Ecuador
President Rafael Correa, now entering his third term, has built a curious form of populist-authoritarian regime. He champions redistributionism and a kind of technocratic leftism while assaulting the traditional left along with such mainstays of a liberal society as the freedom of the press.
Carlos de la Torre
Ecuador: Correa’s Plebiscitary Presidency
Long an extreme case of institutionalized instability, Ecuador now has a dynamic young president who is determined to remake its constitution, and eventually its society, in the name of “twenty-first-century socialism.”
Catherine M. ConaghanLatin America’s Shifting Politics: Virtue, Fortune, and Failure in Peru
Less than two years after an extremely close presidential election, the supporters of Keiko Fujimori took advantage of a corruption scandal to cut short the presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
Alberto Vergara
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