The State of Democracy in Latin America

Date
Event Sponsor
Center for Latin American Studies
Location
Bolivar House, 582 Alvarado Row
This presentation will first sketch the different stages and trajectories of political mobilization, modernization and democratization in the Latin American countries during the 20th century and the impacts the various forms and modes of democracy have had for elitist and populist strategies of development and social inclusion and integration. On this background, and on the basis of new qualitative and quantitative findings, then the outcome of the more recent democratizations of the 'third wave' will be examined with regard to the dimensions of democratic 'consolidation', remaining 'defects', and the quality of democracy. A third point will focus on continuities, on the one hand, and the various 'neo'-syndromes, on the other, like neo-liberalism, neo-populism(s), the 'new Left', new forms of democracy, and the repercussions they may have on 'old' institutions, rule of law and state structure. Finally, it will be tentatively asked where Latin American democracies may be heading for, and what the potential impact of democracy could be for social inclusion, development, and for the strategies to meet the challenges of recent crises and of a more globalized world. Hans-Jürgen Puhle is Professor emeritus of Political Science at the University of Frankfurt (Germany) and Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University. Previously he has been Director of the Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Sociales (ILDIS) in Santiago de Chile (1966-68) and Professor of History and Political Science at the universities of Münster (1968-78), Bielefeld (1978-90) and Frankfurt (1990-2009). He received his PhD from the Free University of Berlin (1965) and has been a J.F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University, Leverhulme Fellow at Oxford University, Visiting Professor at Cornell and Stanford Universities, University of Tel Aviv, Universidad de Chile Santiago, FLACSO Buenos Aires, Instituto Juan March, Madrid, and a visiting scholar at numerous institutions in Europe, the Americas and Asia. He is co-editor of the journals Geschichte und Gesellschaft (since 1975), Iberoamericana (2000-2006), Journal of Politics in Latin America (since 2009), and the book series Nordamerikastudien (since 1990) and Edition Weltregionen (since 2000). He has served on the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies and the Subcommittee on Southern Europe of the SSRC and ACLS and many other scientific institutions; currently he is chair of the Advisory Council of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Berlin, and member of the Boards of the Transformation Index (BTI) and the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) of the Bertelsmann Foundation. Puhle has published widely in the fields of comparative social and political history of Western Europe, North and Latin America, problems of modernization, comparative politics and political theory, state functions in welfare capitalism, political parties, pressure groups and social movements, nationalism, populism and regionalism, regime transformation and problems of democratic consolidation.
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