Photo by Martín Iglesias.
Spring 2013
DEMOCRACY
A woman holds a sign saying “ ‘This’ is democracy?” during a protest in Argentina.
Building a Better Citizen by Oscar Oszlak (with Ingrid Baumann)
T
he study of democratization in Latin America has undergone several phases. Originally, scholars tried to explain what variables trigger the transition from authoritarian to democratic regimes. Then, as democracy was re-established in most countries of the region, the consolidation of these regimes became the focus of analysis, especially the circumstances that could produce a return to authoritarianism. This new interest led to a focus on the quality of the established democracies, and several adjectives began to be added to the term “democracy” to qualify its distinctive nature. “Delegative,” “restrictive,” “exclusionary,” “limited,” and “low intensity,” are just a few descriptors among dozens of terms. Even though all types meet the accepted standards of democracy in procedural terms, they are far from being full-fledged democracies. In any case, most of the research has examined the quality of democracy from the point of view of the regime,
observing the rules of the game and the management styles imposed by the government. Very few studies have been concerned with the quality of democracy from the perspective of the citizens, looking at their perceptions, attitudes, and behavior with regard to the political framework in which they live. From this angle, the question becomes: How democratic are the citizens? Or even better: Can a democracy exist if citizens are not entirely democratic? In this article, I reflect upon these questions, drawing from the preliminary results of an ongoing research project dealing with the quality of democracy in Argentina. Guillermo O´Donnell has characterized the Argentine regime as “delegative,” meaning that, once elected, presidents feel that they are entitled to govern as they see fit. He also characterized Argentina as a country with “brown areas,” namely territorially based systems of domination >> CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, UC BERKELEY
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