ABSTRACT
Political development is a long-term and almost never straight-line process. It was only in the mid-1960s that Latin America was entering a period when authoritarian military regimes were all but universal, a situation that prevailed for nearly two decades. One of the most serious lacks in contemporary Latin America is leadership. A critical factor in mobilizing developmental advances in any part of the world, leadership has been in serious decline globally for most of the past generation. In the world as a whole the high point with respect to political leadership was the middle of the twentieth century. Latin American countries do influence each other by actions upon, or even within, the country being influenced. There is very little evidence that developments in one Latin American country significantly affect events in another, either by individual example or by demonstration effect.
