ABSTRACT
Latin America's transition to democracy, a period that stretches from the 1978 elections in the Dominican Republic to those held in El Salvador in 1994, has been followed by the full consolidation of electoral democracy, with leaders elected competitively, freely and, for the most part, without corruption. This chapter examines the different periods into which Latin American politics between 1978 and 2015 can be divided. It is focuses on matters of a political-institutional nature, and of political economy combined with different kinds of leadership. The chapter discuses that there are sufficient grounds for thinking that 2016 may have marked the start of a new political cycle which, despite institutional consolidation, raises questions about the advance of democratic representation. Latin America's processes of democratization in the 1980s were unprecedented both in their intensity and reach. In 2014 and 2015, Latin America's extremely diverse nations held ten presidential elections, marking the culmination of a political cycle that had begun a decade earlier.
