ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broad tour de horizon ahead of the in-depth chapters that follow and it situates Latin America's constitutionalist tradition historically in the context of world-wide constitutionalism, and as it relates to processes of democratization, and to the many varieties of democracy that are under construction in Latin America today. The basic force driving the democratization of Latin America's long-standing republican institutions is the still substantially unsatisfied demands of much of the population for reliable observance of their ostensible citizenship rights. The new extensive literature on political accountability in Latin America provides a window on the extent of these changes, as they impact upon the interaction between constitutional authority and democratic innovation. Capucine Boidin has reconstructed a second long-overlooked precursor to Latin American constitutionalism. She examined the correspondence sent from Buenos Aires by Manuel Belgrano to the pueblos de misiones and the Caribe de Asunción in what was to become the republic of Paraguay.
