ABSTRACT
Latin America is now more democratic than at any time in its history. With the exception of Cuba, every country in the region has been choosing its governments through relatively free and fair elections since Mexico’s historic 2000 elections. While countries as diverse as Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela have experienced high levels of political instability in recent years, for the first time ineffective and/or extremely unpopular governments have been replaced by more legitimate ones through processes that have generally respected democratic institutional norms – not through recourse to the military, as has been the region’s historical solution for problems of ‘governability.’
