Party Relations and Democracy in Latin America
Abstract
Although most political party systems in Latin America have relatively few major parties, and in many case those parties fall relatively closely together ideologically, the countries of Latin America have consistently struggled with political instability. This article argues that an important factor contributing to the varying stability of political party systems concerns how major parties compete. Party systems with a moderate level of competition, in which opposing parties have distinct positions, authentically attempt to defeat their opponents, but accept as legitimate an opposition win, tend to be the most stable. Party systems become relatively less stable with either more or less competition. Party systems with combative party relations, in which parties do not accept the right of the opposition to win, tend to be the most unstable, as the primary competitors may themselves be inclined to support the usurpation of democracy. However, party systems with collusive party relations, in which major parties cooperate closely through pacted or consociational arrangements, may also contribute to instability. These arrangements may initially facilitate democratization during transition periods, but over time the stagnating party system may fail to keep pace with a changing society. Limited opportunities for new political parties and a loss of representativeness by the older parties encourage the development of anti-system parties.
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Many thanks to Michael Coppedge, Sam Fitch, Gerry Munck and the anonymous reviewers from Party Politics for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.
1 Guillermo O'Donnell (1994) has identified a category of regimes he calls `delegative democracy', in which elected leaders govern with high levels of autonomy, seemingly unconstrained by the desires of their electorates or the checks of a democratic system. President Carlos Menem of Argentina, who has made extensive use of decrees to rule, and President Alberto Fujimori of Peru, who carried out an autogolpe which ousted the Congress, are exemplars of this category (the latter regime is at best on the margins of democracy). In these cases, parties lose much of their influence over policy-making. However, as long as elections continue to be held, and leaders can be replaced, parties remain important.
2 Michael Coppedge (1998) discusses this issue further.
3 Nevertheless, in Latin America, many communist parties have actually become relatively democratic over time, accepting democracy in principle (Castañeda, 1993).
4 See Casper and Taylor (1996) for a dissenting voice.
5 Any written constitution may also impose boundaries on democratic decision-making, especially if it specifies not only procedures for the country's democracy, but some of the expected substance. However, to the extent that the constitution also stipulates procedures for amendment, the existence of such a document need not restrict the full exercise of competitive democracy.
6 Lijphart and Waisman (1996: 238) note that most recent Latin American democracies have implemented mixed systems, drawing from both majoritarian and proportional representation models.
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Article first published: October 1998
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