Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ideas Matter

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Behavioral Economics
    • Environment and Climate Change
    • Macroeconomics and Finance
    • Microeconomics and Competitiveness
    • Politics and Institutions
    • Social Issues
  • Authors
  • Spanish
Democracy is deeply entrenched in Latin America, according to a database of the world's political institutions

A Unique Database Charts Latin America’s Deepening Democracy

April 25, 2018 by Autor invitado Leave a Comment


This year’s update to the Database of Political Institutions marks its 17th year of tracking institutional and electoral data for countries from around the world, and the second update at its new permanent home at the IDB. Researchers at the World Bank Development Research Group first compiled the database in 2000, coding institutional and electoral variables for 180 countries starting in 1975. Since then, the database has been cited more than 3000 times, across a wide range of disciplines and subfields.

As the Database of Political Institutions (DPI) heads into its second decade, it is a fitting time to reflect on what we have learned about measuring institutions for the last 17 years. In addition, the proliferation of other datasets and tools for measuring political institutions, including DPI, has led to an increasing focus on institutional trends as a key determinant for understanding economic outcomes and development.  Nowhere is this link more evident than studying the experience of Latin American countries.

Democratic institutions in Latin America are maturing

In examining the broad trends in the region since 1975, one overarching theme has been the maturing of Latin American democratic institutions. While there are certainly stories of individual countries moving backwards, the trend towards greater political development and institutionalization stands out.

One measure of increasing institutionalization is the strengthening of democracy and the emergence of functional and competitive electoral institutions. This is crucial because one of the key findings in the literature is that when it comes to democracy, experience matters. Young democracies tend to be more corrupt, exhibit less rule of law and display lower bureaucratic quality. They also feature poorer long-term planning, with politicians who splurge on popular projects before elections, rather than carefully budgeting for development.

This greater maturity is reaping rewards. Even though dramatic reversals in democratization make headlines, the overall story is a simpler one of growth and steady progress towards democratic consolidation. For a number of indicators tracked in DPI, the region is shaping up to be the most electorally competitive—and indeed, democratic—in the developing world.

Dominance of one party is becoming a relic of the past

As can be seen from Figures 1 and 2 below, as a region, Latin America has steadily advanced in terms of electoral competitiveness for both legislative and executive elections.  That is to say that in the vast majority of countries multiple parties now contest elections and can win: that dominance by single parties, backed by repressive force, fraud or government media monopolies, is increasingly becoming a relic of the past.

             

                  Figure 1. Average Legislative Competitiveness

            Figure 2. Average Executive Electoral Competitiveness

Meanwhile, the political parties themselves are becoming more institutionalized. The Latin American parties that entered the political scene in the mid-1900s as relative newcomers to politics are now the seasoned veterans of the developing world.  Moreover, this strength has not come at the expense of electoral competitiveness. Ruling parties are not only becoming more entrenched and established, but opposition parties as well. In fact, in many countries, the vote shares of the formerly dominant parties in the region have declined, contributing to the trend in electoral competitiveness of the region as a whole.         

 

                Figure 3. Average Age of Parties in the Legislature           

The period covered by the database has coincided with challenging economic times. Recessions and increasing economic inequality have rocked the developing and developed world. In some areas, those economic hardships have gone hand-in-hand with declines in democratic institutionalization or an increasing turn to nationalist parties. But looking at the evidence, this has not been the case for Latin America.  While economic suffering has caused some backsliding, the reaction of the region in general has been to increaseelectoral competition and open up politics to new voices.

Latin Americans freely vote out parties that fail them

We have read in recent years about coups and tanks in the streets in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. But citizens in most of Latin America are freely voting out parties that they perceive as failing them, and, as they do, choosing among a greater diversity of parties with established ideologies and platforms.

To be sure, many countries in the region still feature so-called clientelist parties, experts in the use of patronage and vote buying to win elections. And since the 1990s, there has been a growth in the region of parties built around charismatic and populist leaders, rather than ideas and ideologies. But the tradition of peaceful, constitutional change is now deeply entrenched. Consider, as but a few examples, the end of the 71-year dominance of Mexico by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after the triumph of the National Action Party (PAN) in the elections of 2000 or the loss of the Colorado Party’s six-decade dominance of Paraguay after the elections of 2008. Or the relatively strong system of checks and balances that keeps autocrats throughout the region from monopolizing decision-making and stealing elections.

 

                      Figure 4. Average Checks and Balances

In short, Latin America has moved steadily towards democracy since the military dictatorships of the 1970s and early 1980s. While clientelism is still a force to be reckoned with and government performance lags in areas ranging from the professionalism and autonomy of the bureaucracy to the independence of the judiciary, the region has long been one of lively electoral competition at both the legislative and presidential levels, enjoying freedoms that much of the developing world could only dream of.

In subsequent blogs, we will be using the DPI to look at some of the components of democracy in greater detail along with case studies that illustrate both the challenges still to overcome and the considerable progress made to date. Stay tuned.

 

*Guest Author: Cesi Cruz is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia and teaches in UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. She is a key collaborator with the IDB on the Database of Political Institutions (DPI).


Filed Under: Politics and Institutions Tagged With: #democracy, #elections, #LatAm, #Mexico, #Paraguay, #PoliticalParties

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Related posts

  • Latin America and the Risk of State Failure
  • For a Region in Turmoil, An Updated Database of Political Institutions
  • Mexico: Growth of a Multi-Party System
  • What Can Restore Latin Americans’ Faith in Democracy
  • A Sharp New Light on Political Institutions

About this blog

The blog of the IDB's Research Department shares ideas that matter on public policy and development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

Blog posts written by Bank employees:

Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


For blogs written by external parties:

For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

Aviso Legal

Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

facebook
twitter
youtube
This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
To learn more about cookies, click here
X
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT