ABSTRACT
Latin America is composed of twenty nations that, despite their commonalties, have many differences—size, wealth, natural resources, climate, racial composition, importance to the European colonizer in the colonial period, and importance to the United States and Europe since independence. In this chapter, the authors rank the twenty countries into seven different groups, arranged on a scale from most democratic to least democratic. These include the most democratic; democratic but not fully consolidated; formally democratic but with weak institutions; in transition from authoritarianism to democracy; in transition from democracy to a more presidential-based system; some fragile democratic institutions but lacking a democratic base; and Marxist-Leninist, undemocratic. Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay are the most democratic of the twenty Latin American nations. The nations of the second group are not fully consolidated democratic nations. They are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. Nevertheless Vicente Fox maintained his position that he had played an important role in Mexico's democratization.
