ABSTRACT
Communism collapsed in the Soviet Union, which then had elections and disappeared as a political system, replaced by a smaller Russia. The history of elected governments in Latin America surely warns against assuming that having elections means that there is necessarily a democracy. Democracy implies an unwillingness to concentrate power in the hands of a few, and so subjects leaders and policies to mechanisms of popular representation and accountability. In many Latin American countries thousands have died in recent civil wars. In the 1960s Marxist guerrilla groups chose armed conflict instead of electoral competition, and the resulting civil wars created a series of related problems for Latin American democracies. As relatively poor countries with serious problems of transportation and communication, many Latin American countries have never been able to ensure the rule of law for the entire nation.
