Young Democracies and Government Size: Evidence from Latin America

We empirically investigate the hypothesis that when democracies are young, or still fragile and unconsolidated, the size of government (in terms of consumption, debt and share to GDP) tends to increase in an attempt to buy out the electorate, so that democracy becomes acceptable and ?the only game in town?. Our sample includes nine Latin American countries between 1970 and 2007 and the results, based on principal component and panel data analyses (POLS, Fixed E¤ects and SYS-GMM estimators), suggest that the young democracies of Latin America have been indeed associated with bigger governments. Furthermore, we test for the hypothesis that the old dictatorships also engaged in activities which would leave the young democracies with bigger de?cits to be repaid, therefore with bigger governments in their initial stages. This hypothesis is not con?rmed by the analysis conducted here. Finally, there is some evidence that as democracies, and also the electorate, mature over time, the size of government shows signs of reduction.Democracy, Government, Latin America

When digital democracy falls short: insights from Colombia

Colombian e-government development has been internationally recognised by the UN as a leader in Latin America, and one of the 20 most developed nations of the world in the area. However, ICT tools and services such as broadband are a luxury. Colombia suffers from an access divide due to economic and infrastructural limitations, and a second level digital divide because of weak information and data literacy. This Brief focuses on identifying the impact of ICT mediation in democratisation and citizen engagement in terms of what is understood as governance, how those representations are legitimised, and the ways in which they change power relations. The authors reviewed Colombian ICT mediation policies, placed them in relation to the context, and contrasted them with previous research about local e-democracy developments. This gave a characterisation of how Colombian e-government routines have evolved. The Brief analyses the government project called Urna de Cristal (UDC), which is the centrepiece of President Santos’ mandate on e-government policy and democratisation. This brief is part of a series from IT for Change produced from its Voice or Chatter research project, which examines the relationship between ICT-mediated citizen engagement and democratic governance.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

A política externa de Reagan e a redemocratização da América Latina (1981-1988)

At the moment of the transition of authoritarian regimes to democratic regimes, several ones are the elements, actors, and interests in this process. Political regimes and ideologies so diverse in Latin America, established in different moments, but interlinked in a same process – Regime of National Safety during the dictatorships and democracy afterwards – did not just arise from internal relations and interests of local groups, but they were also fomented by international actions, whose implications are the subject of this text. In general, we have impression that Ronald Reagan’s politics was truculent to Latin America in the 80’s, but this article proposes to observe and analyze Reagan and his advisers’ activities with the aim of verify the influence of this politics on Latin America. The interest of the text is elaborate a charting about the reasons that North American government had, in order to conduct an external politics with the purpose of dismissing dictatorial government, fomenting the necessity of democratic opening in Latin America. That region was understood as a strategic area to United States of America then.No momento da transição de regimes autoritários para regimes democráticos, muitos são os elementos, atores e interesses nesse processo. Regimes políticos e ideologias tão distintos na América Latina, estabelecidos em momentos diferentes, porém interligados num mesmo processo (regime de Segurança Nacional nas ditaduras e democracia posteriormente), não surgiram apenas de relações internas e interesses de grupos locais, mas também foram fomentados por ações internacionais, cujas implicações são o tema deste texto. Em geral, temos a impressão de que a política de Ronald Reagan para a América Latina, nos anos 1980, foi truculenta; porém, este artigo propõe-se a observar e analisar as atividades diplomáticas de Reagan e seus assessores com o objetivo de verificar a influência dessa política sobre a América Latina. O interesse do texto é elaborar um mapeamento das razões que levaram o governo norte-americano a conduzir uma política externa com intuito de destituir governos ditatoriais, fomentando a necessidade de abertura democrática na América Latina, região entendida, na época, como área estratégica para os Estados Unidos

Undemocratic by color: The hidden racial logic and hierarchical structure of US military interventions to promote democracy in Latin America

As consequências estruturais do racismo, decisivas nas intervenções dos Estados Unidospara promover a democracia na América Latina, permanecem inexploradas. O artigoafirma que a desumanização racial e suas consequências epistêmicas e políticas colocamos Estados Unidos, em relação à América Latina, como um super-soberano que pode, aqualquer momento, apontar um governo latinoamericano como antidemocrático / nãorepresentativo de seu povo / não legitimamente soberano e tentar retirá-lo do poder, emuma lógica estrutural-hierárquica, ao invés de anárquica. Essa linha de pensamento resultada expansão dos conceitos decoloniais, que o artigo também coloca em diálogo com fontesque sustentam o presente argumento para além da lógica decolonial.Las consecuencias estructurales del racismo decisivas en las intervenciones estadounidensespara promover la democracia en América Latina siguen sin explorarse. El artículo afirma quela deshumanización racial y sus consecuencias epistémicas y políticas hacen que EstadosUnidos se erija, con respecto a América Latina, como un super-soberano que puede, encualquier momento, señalar a un gobierno latinoamericano como antidemocrático/norepresentativo de su Pueblo/no legítimamente soberano y tratar de sacarlo del poder, enuna lógica estructural-jerárquica, y no anárquica. Esta línea de pensamiento resulta dela expansión de los conceptos decoloniales, que el artículo también pone en diálogo confuentes que apoyan tal afirmación más allá del argumento decolonial.Decisive structural consequences of racism to US interventions to promote democracy in Latin America remain unexplored. The paper claims that racial dehumanization and its epistemic and political consequences make the US stand, in regard to Latin America, as a super-sovereign that can, at any time, point to a Latin American government as undemocratic/unrepresentative of its people/not legitimately sovereign and attempt to remove it from power, in a structural-hierarchical, rather than anarchical, logic. This line of thought is the result of the expansion of decolonial concepts, which the paper also puts in dialog with sources that support the claim beyond decoloniality

Unions, Markets, and Democracy in Latin America

[Excerpt] In the 1990s scholars of Latin America moved from a concern with democratization to a focus on the implementation of market economic reforms. With this shift, the appreciation of labor unions\u27 value to society was lost. Whereas earlier analyses of democratic transitions recognized organized labor\u27s important role in bringing an end to dictatorships, later studies of market reform viewed labor organizations as either obstacles to be overcome, losers to be compensated, or simply irrelevant. Perhaps more important than scholarship\u27s neglect of labor unions is the neglect that is reflected in policies toward labor in the region. Economic and labor market policies as well as labor law reforms have left workers and labor organizations more vulnerable without creating adequate protections, bolstering labor rights, or democratizing industrial relations systems. I argue that these policies have had significant costs that in turn affect two important contemporary debates: (1) how to strengthen labor rights in the global economy; and (2) how to consolidate and deepen democracy in Latin America

Give and Take: Political Competition, Participation and Public Finance in 20th Century Latin America

Rational choice models predict that political competition and political participation have opposite effects on the size of government. We investigate these theories using data from a panel of 18 Latin American countries during the 20th century. Our research builds evidence for the prediction that reforms enhancing political competition tend to limit the size of government. Furthermore, we find that reforms which remove literacy requirements from franchise laws are associated with government expansion, while changes in women's suffrage laws have no impact on the size of government. Our findings demonstrate the empirical relevance of the distinction between political competition and participation

The Politics of Indigenous Participation Through “Free Prior Informed Consent”: Reflections from the Bolivian Case

This article explores the challenges of ethnic-based participation and its potential for creating inclusive and effective forms of decision-making for marginalized social groups. Empirically, it examines a recent attempt to establish more participative forms of resource and development governance for indigenous communities in Bolivia through Free Prior and Informed Consent/Consultation (FPIC). Rooted in international human rights law, FPIC aims at achieving more effective bottom-up participation by establishing an obligation to consult – or obtain the consent of – indigenous peoples before large development projects and legal reforms that would affect them can proceed. Interest in FPIC initiatives has been growing for reasons that range from efforts to build more equitable management of natural resources to attempts to introduce more effective local-scale practices of participation and active citizenship. We argue that the idea of prior consultation and FPIC itself are not neutral instruments; they will not automatically lead to better or more democratic governance and a more equal society. The way in which FPIC is currently being implemented and framed in Bolivia is in tension with broader ideas of representation and legitimacy, inclusiveness, and management of public and common goods because there is no real clarity as to who is entitled to participation, why they do, and whether they are doing so as a corrective to exclusion, a promotion of citizenship, or as a mechanism for redistribution. As we show here, FPIC implementation can have unintended consequences and consultation can sometimes embed existing social, cultural, and economic tensions. The paper offers some broader reflections on participatory governance and collective rights especially in relation to the tensions between inclusive participation and exclusive rights or – put differently – the challenges for building cultures of participation and inclusion in complex and ethnic diverse democracies

The ‘National Security Strategy of the USA’ and Brazilian military thought: Imagining the near future

This paper examines the US National Security Strategies, 2002 and 2006, with a view to understanding the impact that some of their elements, including the doctrine of pre-emptive war, may have on Brazilian military thought. By focusing on revealing articles by Brazilian military intellectuals, and re-examining the international legal implications of the Strategies, the author determines that the implicit threats to the national sovereignty of middle-range powers will intensify the growing suspicion and sense of threat posed by the US to the Armed Forces of Brazil

RULE OF LAW E DEMOCRACIA: Uma abordagem empírica sobre a América Latina

Can the hypotheses raised by the literature on rule of law and democracy be corroborated in the Latin American scenario? The objective of this article is to empirically approach some hypotheses in the literature on rule of law and democracy, with a focus on Latin America. Methodologically, we analyzed the relationship between the rule of law and the variables (1) democracy, (2) quality of democracies, (3) income inequality, (4) human development and (5) personal autonomy, in a comparative perspective. We used data from The Quality of Government Institute (The QOG Standard Data Set from the University of Gothenburg) (2005-2012) as a reference. The results indicate that: (1) the rule of law lacks a more precise theoretical and operational definition; (2) rule of law is statistically and positively correlated with: (a) democratic regimes, (b) quality of democracy, (c) human development and (d) personal autonomy; (3) rule of law is only negatively correlated with income inequality in democratic regimes.¿Se pueden corroborar en el escenario latinoamericano las hipótesis planteadas por la literatura sobre estado de derecho y democracia? El objetivo de este artículo es abordar empíricamente algunas hipótesis de la literatura sobre estado de derecho y democracia, con foco en América Latina. Metodológicamente, analizamos la relación entre el estado de derecho y las variables (1) democracia, (2) calidad de las democracias, (3) desigualdad de ingresos, (4) desarrollo humano y (5) autonomía personal, en una perspectiva comparada. Usamos datos del Quality of Government Institute (The QOG Standard Data Set from the University of Gothenburg) (2005-2012) como referencia. Los resultados indican que: (1) el estado de derecho carece de una definición teórica y operativa más precisa; (2) el estado de derecho se correlaciona estadística y positivamente con: (a) regímenes democráticos, (b) calidad de la democracia, (c) desarrollo humano y (d) autonomía personal; (3) el estado de derecho solo se correlaciona negativamente con la desigualdad de ingresos en los regímenes democráticos.As hipóteses levantadas pela literatura sobre rule of law e democracia podem ser corroboradas no cenário da América Latina? O objetivo desse artigo é abordar empiricamente algumas hipóteses da literatura sobre rule of law e democracia, com foco na América Latina. Metodologicamente analisamos a relação entre rule of law e as variáveis (1) democracia, (2) qualidade das democracias, (3) desigualdade de renda, (4) desenvolvimento humano e (5) autonomia pessoal, em perspectiva comparada. Utilizamos como referência os dados do The Quality of Government Institute (The QOG Standard Data Set da University of Gothenburg) (2005-2012). Os resultados indicam que: (1) rule of law carece de uma definição teórica e operacional mais precisa; (2) rule of law se correlaciona estatisticamente e positivamente com: (a) regimes democráticos, (b) qualidade da democracia, (c) desenvolvimento humano e (d) autonomia pessoal; (3) rule of law só se correlaciona negativamente com desigualdade de renda em regimes democráticos

Theorising state-narco relations in Bolivia's nascent democracy (1982-1993): governance order and political transition

Conventional policy and academic discourses have generally held illicit drug economies in Latin America to be synergistic with violence and instability. The case of post-transition Bolivia (1982–1993) confounds such assumptions. Applying a political economy approach, this article moves beyond mainstream analyses to examine how the Bolivian drug trade became interwoven with informal forms of governance, order and political transition. I argue that state–narco networks – a hangover from Bolivia’s authoritarian era – played an important role in these complex processes. In tracing the evolution of these interactions, the article advances a more nuanced theorisation of the relationship between the state and the drug trade in an understudied case