Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:57:54.739Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Policy Capabilities of Democratic Regimes in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

John W. Sloan*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The present trend toward democratic regimes in Latin American countries raises the issue of their regime-determined capabilities. Democracy is generally defined in procedural terms and supported on moral rather than policy grounds (Schumpeter 1950, 242). Consequently, very little is known about the policy consequences, if any, of the adoption of democratic forms and procedures by Latin American political systems. One way to examine this question is to analyze the policy performance of the three democratic regimes in Latin America that are the most institutionalized: Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. These three nations, unlike Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, were able to withstand the authoritarian trends of the 1960s and early 1970s. They have been democratic long enough (well over two decades) during a period when development issues were salient to indicate the policy-performance capabilities of democratic regimes operating within the cultural, economic, and political context of Latin America.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

This research note is a revised version of a paper originally read at the meeting of the Latin American Studies Association in Boston in October 1986.

References

Ascher, William 1984 Scheming for the Poor: The Politics of Redistribution in Latin America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Camp, Roderic A. 1985The Political Technocrat in Mexico and the Survival of the Political System.” LAR 20, no. 1:97118.Google Scholar
Chalmers, Douglas A., and Robinson, Craig H. 1980Why Power Contenders Choose Liberalization Perspectives from Latin America.” Paper read at the meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., 28–31 August.Google Scholar
Collier, David, ED. 1979 The New Authoritarianism in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dominguez, Jorge I. 1987Political Change: Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.” In Understanding Political Development, edited by Weiner, Myron and Huntington, Samuel P., 65103. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Hartlyn, Jonathan, and Morley, Samuel A. 1986Political Regimes and Economic Performance in Latin America.” In Latin American Political Economy: Financial Crisis and Political Change, edited by Hartlyn, Jonathan and Morley, Samuel A., 1538. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan 1975 Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes.“ In Handbook of Political Science, edited by Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W., 174411. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Malloy, James M., ED. 1977 Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Martz, John D. 1984Venezuela: Democratic Politics of Petroleum.” In Politics, Policies, and Economic Development in Latin America, edited by Wesson, Robert, 161–88. Palo Alto: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Martz, John D., and Myers, David J. 1983Understanding Latin American Politics: Analytic Models and Intellectual Traditions.” Polity 16 (Winter 1983):214–41.Google Scholar
O'DONNELL, GUILLERMO A. 1973 Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism: Studies in South American Politics. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
O'DONNELL, GUILLERMO A. 1978Reflections on the Patterns of Change in the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State.” LAR 13, no. 1 (1978):338.Google Scholar
Oszlak, Oscar 1986Public Policies and Political Regimes in Latin America.” International Social Science Journal 38, no. 2:219–36.Google Scholar
Paz, Octavio 1982Latin American Democracy.” In Democracy and Dictatorship in Latin America, 518. New York: Foundation for the Independent Study of Social Ideas.Google Scholar
Peeler, John A. 1985 Latin American Democracies: Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Remmer, Karen L. 1985Redemocratization and the Impact of Authoritarian Rule in Latin America.” Comparative Politics 17 (Apr. 1985):253–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remmer, Karen L., and Merkx, Gilbert W. 1982Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism Revisited.” LAR 17, no. 2:340.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1950 Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Serra, Jose 1979Three Mistaken Theses regarding the Connection between Industrialization and Authoritarian Regimes.” In COLLIER 1979, 99165.Google Scholar
Sloan, John W. 1984 Public Policy in Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Sloan, John W., and Tedin, Kent 1985The Policy Consequences of Regime Types in Latin America.” Paper read at the meeting of the International Political Science Association, Paris, 15–20 July.Google Scholar
Wesson, Robert, ED. 1984 Politics, Policies, and Economic Development in Latin America. Palo Alto: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Wiarda, Howard J. 1980Latin American Democracy: The Historic Model and the New Openings.” In The Continuing Struggle for Democracy in Latin America, edited by Wiarda, Howard J., 275–95. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
WORLD BANK 1984 World Development Report, no. 218.Google Scholar