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By Richard Sholk

This paper is the rapporteur's report from the third in a multi-year series of conferences on "Transitions from Authoritarianism and Prospects for Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe," sponsored by the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The conference was held on June 4-7, 1981.

From the Introduction

Beginning in the mid-1970s, several events in Latin America and Latin Europe caused attention to be focused on the prospects for transitions from authoritarianism. In Spain, Franco's death triggered a process which involved a cautious reconstruction of the institutions of civil society (e.g., political parties and trade unions) and which seemed to point toward democratization. In Brazil, the government's distensao ("decompression") project raised the possibility of a transition from authoritarian rule. The Portuguese revolution, events in Greece, the Peruvian elections, and even the Uruguayan and Chilean plebiscites, were interpreted as signs that the ruling military governments of Latin America and southern Europe were entering some sort of crisis phase in which they were constrained to embark on new initiatives toward liberalization or relegitimation. More recently, the overthrow of the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua and the consolidation of the revolutionary forces in Guatemala and in El Salvador have raised new hopes for an end to the succession of military dictatorships which have dominated most of Central America for the last half-century.

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The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more