Democracy in Latin America examines democratic transition and consolidation in post-authoritarian and post-civil war Latin America. Its central premise is that the fundamental prerequisite of democracy is the existence of a polity or ‘political society,’ something that has been weak or under threat. The challenges of reconstructing ‘political societies’ rests upon a broad definition of democracy as more than electoral systems and institutions. A range of issues are embraced: dealing with past abuses of human rights; integrating societies into global market economics; the manner in which external actors—such as the United Nations, international financial institutions, and multinational corporations—have conditioned or facilitated democracy; the role of civil society; the problems of achieving a sense of citizenship in many communities; the perennial ‘indigenous issue’; and the pervading gap between the procedure and the substance of democracy. The norm of democracy is becoming embedded in regional and national politics. The authors of this volume suggest, however, that the journey to meaningful democracy is unfinished.
