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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The State Of Democracy In The Andes: Introduction To A Thematic Issue Of Revista De Ciencia Politica, Maxwell A. Cameron
The State Of Democracy In The Andes: Introduction To A Thematic Issue Of Revista De Ciencia Politica, Maxwell A. Cameron
Maxwell Cameron
This overview finds evidence for concern about the ability of the governments in Colombia and Venezuela to hold free and fair elections and a trend toward the concentration of executive power in most countries in the sub-region. The separation of powers has been most sharply eroded in Venezuela; but Bolivia and Ecuador are moving in a similar direction. Colombia has a robust constitutional order, including a remarkably independent judiciary, however, constitutional order is threatened by the growing concentration of executive power. At the same time, most Andean countries are experimenting with new mechanisms of participation. There are sharp contrasts between …
Democracy Without Parties? Political Parties And Regime Change In Fujimori’S Peru, Maxwell A. Cameron, Steven Levitsky
Democracy Without Parties? Political Parties And Regime Change In Fujimori’S Peru, Maxwell A. Cameron, Steven Levitsky
Maxwell Cameron
Political parties are critical to Latin American democracy. This was demonstrated in Peru, where an atomized, candidate-centered party system developed after Alberto Fujimori's 1992 presidential self-coup. Party system decomposition weakened the democratic opposition against an increasingly authoritarian regime. Since the regime collapsed in 2000, prospects for party rebuilding have been mixed. Structural changes, such as the growth of the informal sector and the spread of mass media technologies, have weakened politicians' incentive to build parties. Although these changes did not cause the collapse of the party system, they may inhibit its reconstruction.