ABSTRACT
The challenge of economic modernization often places the states of developing countries under great pressures, to which democracies seem particularly vulnerable. Democracy implies broad societal representation in policy-making, accountability of executive branches to legislatures, deliberation, compromise and tolerance. Yet economic development frequently requires harsh trade-offs between savings for investment and redistribution for social needs. Recurring economic crises demand swift, decisive, comprehensive responses and impose steep costs on losers. Between 1964 and 1976, those dilemmas generated political tensions that caused many Latin American democracies to give way to authoritarianism. With few exceptions, the military governments that followed proved equally incapable of managing the political economy of their nations. A wave of democratization – which crested in the 1980s – ensued. Today, most of the states in the region are democratic. Yet despite much congratulatory rhetoric, uncertainty over the deepening, consolidation and permanence of those new democracies persists as Latin America confronts the demands of globalization.
