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#200 Political Parties and Representation in the Post-Authoritarian Era: A Rapporteur's Report

By Margaret Daly Hayes

From the Introduction

Over the course of the 1980s the Latin American political and economic landscape has been transformed -- by the return to democracy, by the debt-provoked economic crisis of the early 1980s, the reluctant, but necessary, adoption of harsh austerity measures, and by the subsequent gradual adoption of a new economic model emphasizing less state intervention in the economy and greater private sector initiative. Governments have undertaken deregulation of large areas of economic activity and have begun to draft new rules for administering others. Abandoning import substituting industrialization, most countries have established impressive track records in export performance and have begun to open markets to imports. Renewed attention is being given to questions of social justice.

In November 1991, the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a meeting to assess the evolution of political parties and the state of consolidation of democracy in the region in the wake of profound political and economic changes of the 1980s. Six political profiles were presented covering Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay, Peru and Brazil. The wide ranging discussion examined systemic characteristics of the Latin American political process such as corporatism, patronage, the emergence of "new caudillos" on the political scene, and the implications of economic changes for political processes. The country profiles are summarized in separate sections in this working paper. This essay summarizes the major themes covered in the discussion and comments on their implications for Latin America's democratic prospects.

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Latin America Program

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