ABSTRACT
The partial dawning of liberal democracy that took place in Latin America in the early twentieth century, best exemplified by Argentina and Chile, but with more elitist shadows in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia, was short-lived, while it was stillborn in Mexico and aborted in Venezuela. Rather than a revolutionary rising of the masses, the maneuvering of political brokers—displaying varying degrees of personalism—along the border between the establishment and the emergent populist groups was a hallmark of the period. As time went on and the region moved into post—World War II prosperity, the belief that the growth of the middle classes of Latin American society, rooted in economic development and societal modernization, would lead to greater stability and democracy proved illusory. A difficult new challenge was emerging with respect to broadening the base of participation to include at least a few favored rural groups, an incorporation that had already happened in Mexico under Cardenas.
