Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
The circumstances of the diverse nations of the Western Hemisphere have been dramatically transformed over the course of the past few years - as has the relationship among them. During the 1980s and early 1990s, a wave of democracy swept over most of Latin America and the Caribbean, placing almost all of the societies in the region under the rule of elected civilian governments. At the same time, the nationalist-statist development models of the past have been virtually abandoned and much more open, market-oriented lines of economic policy have been adopted. Moreover, many previously contentious issues that troubled relationships among the countries of the region and separated them from the United States appear to be in abeyance.