Wall Street Journal | By JOHN LYONS | April 21, 2004
MEXICO CITY -- A generation after Latin America began embracing
democracy and free-market reforms, sluggish economic growth and
persistent -- and widening -- disparities between rich and poor threaten
to undermine gains made in the decades since men in military uniforms
ran major regional economies, a major new United Nations report
suggests.
While openly elected, representative governments are preferred by
the majority of Latin Americans, more than half the people interviewed
in a regionwide survey say they would support an authoritarian form of
government if it delivered economic growth. About 60% of the 19,000
respondents said development is more important than democracy.
Taken together, the poll data and analysis in the U.N. report
chart an enormous democratic transformation in the region as major
economies such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico discarded authoritarian
systems and introduced free elections. More importantly, the findings
offer context to a recent spate of failed elected governments: Four
Latin American presidents have been forced from power before the end of
their terms since 2000, compared with just one in the 1990s.
"There is a frustration, not with democracy itself, but with
leaders, with governments," said Peter Hakim, president of the
Inter-American Dialogue policy-research firm in Washington. "Many Latin
American countries rushed into democracy, but haven't done the hard work
on governance issues, strengthening institutions, strengthening
government."
The U.N. Development Program study, to be presented today in
Lima, Peru, was designed three years ago to gauge the health of
democratic institutions in 18 Latin American nations that adopted
democratic governments since 1978 in line with a U.N. definition.
Researchers commissioned polls, analyzed election and economic results
and conducted confidential interviews with dozens of leading officials
-- including 32 former and current heads of state. They also developed
two new democracy indexes that can be used to track the strength of
democratic institutions across the region.
Nearly 60% of the political leaders the researchers consulted
said their parties aren't performing adequately as democratic
institutions, and 66% said their democracies have "limitations." Only 6%
of the leaders described their respective governments as "complete
democracies."
Authors of the report say there is a pervasive sense of
frustration that open governments have done little to ameliorate some of
the world's starkest stratification of rich and poor.
In Latin America, the richest 20% of the people account for more
than half of total regional income, while the poorest 20% account for
less than 5% of income, the findings show. The income gap between rich
and poor in Latin America is about twice as wide as it is in the U.S. or
Europe, according to the U.N. researchers. What's more, the gap is
widening and worsening disparities as regional economic growth slowed to
an average of 1.3% annually over the past five years.
In a sign of the broader strength of democracy achieved in the
region, however, the study points out that in most cases countries have
sought to maintain the continuity of their constitutions even when
governments have collapsed. After tens of thousands of Argentines poured
into the streets in 2001 calling for the resignation of President
Fernando de la Rua, the once-dominant military remained in the barracks
while Congress convened in late-night sessions to find a
constitutionally acceptable resolution.Wall Street Journal:
