ABSTRACT
In Latin America, congress is a familiar target for criticism and outrage. The region has a long history of congresses acting more like privileged clubs than responsive assemblies. Citizens, stung by seemingly endless streams of corruption scandals, routinely consider their representatives to be selfserving and unaccountable. Astonishingly, on average only some 57% of Latin Americans view congress as “indispensable” to democracy (Latinobarómetro, 2008, p. 87). In opinion polls, congress regularly ranks far below other social and public institutions such as the Church, the armed forces, the media, and the president (see Table 5.1). Presidents add fuel to the fire, as they habitually fault the institution for gridlock. And the lack of confidence in congress cuts across ideological divides. To the right, President Alberto Fujimori of Peru dissolved congress in 1992 to expedite his efforts toward economic reform and military action against insurgents. A vast majority of Peruvians-polls showed some 70%—supported his move. And to the left, Hugo Chávez railed against the disreputable Venezuelan congress in his successful 1998 presidential campaign. The following year, he sidelined the institution with a constitutional reform that dismissed the incumbents and replaced the traditional bicameral assembly with a streamlined, single-house legislature. Seventy-one percent of voters supported the reform in a referendum.
