ABSTRACT
The experience of the Latin American cases tentatively suggests a counter-intuitive conclusion: the reform mode of transition has rarely led to the consolidation of democracy. In Chile, Pinochets strategy of unilateralism was curbed by his defeat in the 1988 plebiscite and subsequently replaced by pactismo among civilian politicians. The chapter explores the hypothesis that the mode of transition from autocratic rule is a principal determinant of whether democracy will emerge. Imposed and reformist transitions may or may not lead to democracies. Revolutions are less ambiguous; they may produce relatively enduring patterns of domination—witness Mexico since 1929, and Cuba since 1959—but they have rarely evolved into patterns of fair competition, unrestricted contestation, tolerance for rotation in power and free associability.
