ABSTRACT
Throughout the region’s history, weak states have been besieged by actors who sought to dominate the state and policy—often for their own gain. Political parties have competed for power alongside these groups since the nineteenth century, when they were drawn from the traditional oligarchy. Today’s actors in Latin American politics represent the region’s conflict between its authoritarian past and a newer system based on pluralism and democracy. In all the countries of Latin America except Costa Rica and Paraguay, the colonial period led to the establishment of a powerful group of individuals who had received large tracts of land as royal grants. In the 1960s the pressures for land reform were considerable, both from landless peasants and from foreign and domestic groups who saw this type of reform as a way to achieve social justice and to avoid revolutions.
