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Introduction
This assignment is a reaction paper on the article titled ‘The Struggle for Democracy in Latin America’ by Wiarda and Kline; Chapter 5. The paper begins by a brief summary of the article and then goes on to quote from the article, followed by a discussion of the quote as well as a discussion of the democratization process in Latin America.
A Brief Summary of the Article
The article is about democracy in Latin American countries. The authors explore the historical foundations of democracy in these countries by looking at the evolution of the systems of governments from dictatorship and militariansm in early 1970s to democratic governments in early 1990s onwards.
The authors also focus on the definition of democracy, its characteristics and the challenges of democracy in the Latin American countries, including Argentina, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela, among others.
A Quote from the Article
‘The history of elected governments in Latin America surely warns against assuming that having elections means that there is necessarily a democracy’.
This quote is found on page 82 of the article (Wiarda and Kline 82). In this quote, the authors of the article seem to underscore the fact that many countries in Latin America have conducted elections in their history, but the elections themselves are not a sufficient indication of democracy in those countries.
What this quote means is that many countries adopted the democratic forms of governance in the early 1980s, not as a result of their own initiative but as a result of external pressure especially from the United States and the United Nations’ affiliated institutions as well as the Breton woods institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The authors give several examples to support this quote. One such example is Nicaragua and El Salvador, which had elected governments during the 1980s. These governments were characterized by the curtailing of press freedom in regard to reporting about elections and governance as well as the denial of voting rights to supporters of opposition parties.
The purpose of the authors in writing the article was to highlight the real issues which undermine the successful implementation of the democratization process in Latin America and how selfish interest by the political and economic elite further complicate the situation.
Many of the countries in Latin America, though democratic, are concerned about the deteriorating economic and social status and to some, it is better for them to return back to authoritarianism, which they think is better because, during such times, there was adequate infrastructure and an albeit fair distribution of resources, with a small gap between the rich and the poor as opposed to the current democratic governance characterized by an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.
The article depicts the Latin American community as socially, politically and economically naïve, especially due to the neoliberal approach to governance, which according to the authors of the article, is just a democracy of convenience in the sense that the political and economic elite use it to manage the image of their countries at the international level, but in reality, there is rampant corruption, violation of human rights, ethic and civil strife and unrest, lack of education and employment opportunities, drug trafficking and cartels and nepotism in government appointments and allocation of resources.
The Latin American community, therefore, needs a second liberation, which would bring radical changes in the prioritization and alignment of governments’ processes, procedures and operationalization.
The changes need to bring into power a new crop of leaders who are not haunted by the ghosts of traditional authoritarianism and imperial kind of leadership. The new crop of leaders should be able to rise above partisan politics and self-interest and put the interest of their nations ahead. This would bring social, political and economic transformations in the Latin American countries.
Work Cited
Wiarda, Howard and Kline, Harvey. Latin American Politics and Development: (7 Ed.). Washington, DC: Westview Press, 2010:82.Print.
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