Electoral Campaigning and Latin American Democratization: The Grancolombian Experience

1990 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Martz
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Bibliographic Analysis ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Civilian Regimes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Military ◽  
Theoretical Developments

Does electoral campaigning in Latin America make a difference, and does it merit the attention of scholars? This was at the core of an extensive bibliographic analysis, published nearly two decades ago, which noted the paucity of literature on the subject, extending throughout the Third World and even including Western Europe (Martz, 1971). However, the rising tide of military authoritarianism dramatically reduced the relevance of the question in the region, and students of Latin American politics turned away, understandably, from concerted attention to campaigns, elections, and parties. Only with the reemergence of democratic regimes in recent years has interest turned back toward older emphases (Martz, 1990). Once again, theoretical developments have been colored by the events of the day, reorienting scholarly attention “from the military overthrow of civilian regimes and Latin American authoritarianism toward the prospects and processes of redemocratization” (Malloy, 1987).

True Crimes: Rodolfo Walsh and the Role of the Intellectual in Latin American Politics

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McCaughan
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Dirty War ◽  
Death Squad ◽  
The Us ◽  
Own Name ◽  
The Military

Rodolfo Walsh was a writer of crime novels, a tireless investigative journalist who uncovered real political crimes, an instant historian of a turbulent and violent era in Argentinian and Latin American politics. He was in Cuba in 1960, participating in setting up the first revolutionary press service in Latin America, "Prensa Latina", when a coded telex arrived in their offices by mistake. After sleepless nights and with one cryptography manual, Walsh deciphered the plans for the US invasion of Cuba being planned in Guatemala by the CIA. Walsh was active in the Montonero guerrilla in Argentina, co-ordinating information and intelligence work. In that capacity he made public the existence of ESMA, the Naval Mechanics School which was the main military torture centre. In his own name he wrote an Open Letter to the Military Junta, a year from the coup and a day before his death, denouncing the dirty war. He was gunned down in the streets of Buenos Aires by a military death squad. This is an account of Rudolfo Walsh's life. It includes extended excerpts from his varied writings.

The Emerging New Politics of Liberalizing Paraguay: Sustained Civil-Military Control without Democracy

1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Sondrol
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Major Subject ◽  
Military Control ◽  
The Military

The Process of the transition from authoritarianism to more representative forms of government has become a major subject of the scholarship on Latin American politics today (O'Donnell, et al, 1986; Malloy and Seligson, 1987; Stepan, 1989; Diamond et al, 1988-1990; Lowenthal, 1991). Given this interest, as expressed by the growing literature in this area, little attention has been paid to the transition process now going on in Paraguay, which is now emerging from one of Latin America's most long-standing authoritarian regimes.A number of studies testify to the authoritarian nature of Paraguay's government and society. Johnson indicates that Paraguay ranked either 18th or 19th—out of 20 Latin American nations ... in 9 successive surveys of democratic development, carried out at 5-year intervals from 1945 to 1985 (Jonnson> 1988). A longitudinal study of press freedom found that Paraguay was invariably placed in the category of “poor,” or even “none,” between 1945-1975 (Hill and Hurley, 1980). When Palmer applied his 5 indicators of authoritarianism (nonelective rule, coups, primacy of the military, military rule, executive predominance) to the countries of Latin America, Paraguay consistently ranked first in its degree of authoritarianism (Palmer, 1977).

Military Governments and the Transition to Civilian Rule: The Colombian Experience of 1957-1958

1984 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hartlyn
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
Civilian Regimes ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Coups D'etat ◽  
Shed Light

In the 1960s and 1970s, scholars interested in studying Latin American politics inevitably were drawn to the study of military coups d'etat and their causes. In the 1980s, a number of the countries in Latin America whose civilian political regimes were overthrown by military regimes may undergo or attempt to consolidate processes of democratization or redemocratization. Thus scholarly interest has tended to shift away from seeking to understand the causes for military overthrows of civilian regimes toward the study of prospects and processes of democratization or redemocratization in Latin America. In this context, the reexamination of earlier examples of durable transitions from authoritarian military regimes to civilian regimes may shed light on the relative importance of different factors in determining particular outcomes. This article carries out such a re-examination for the case of Colombia, analyzing the transition from rule by General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1953-1957) through the crucial period of the interim military junta (1957-1958) to the consociational National Front political regime.

Propaganda for War the Dissemination of the Crusading Ideal in the Twelfth Century

1983 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Morris
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Technical Aspect ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Total Absence ◽  
Northern France ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Military

It was accepted in western Europe, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, that there was an obligation upon the military classes, and indeed on Christians generally, to take up arms in defence of the Holy Sepulchre, or to participate in other expeditions authorised by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. War ceased to be, for Christians, a regrettable necessity, and became a virtue, and armies were summoned by the trumpet-blasts of the Prince of Peace. There has been a great deal of work by historians in recent decades on the transformation of earlier Christian ideology, and we now understand much more about the origins of crusading ideas, the discussion of warfare by theologians and canon lawyers, and the profound changes in spirituality which accompanied the rise of militarism. There is however a technical aspect of the subject which is less often considered: the actual methods by which the new ideals were communicated to western society generally. By any standards, it was a remarkably successful exercise in publicity. It was also, in the first instance, very rapid. Urban II announced the expedition to Jerusalem at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, and he fixed the date of departure as 15 August 1096. The summons was heard by groups far wider than the princes and their households, and by Easter 1096 an army led by Peter the Hermit had already arrived in Cologne on its way from northern France. Within a few months, therefore, and well in advance of the papal deadline, the message had spread to all levels of society over a wide geographical area. A system of communication as effective as this deserves our respect and study. It would be a mistake to conclude from the total absence of modern technology that the control of opinion was unimportant in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Understanding Political Change After Authoritarian Rule: The Popular Sectors and Chile's New Democratic Regime

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Oxhorn
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Recent Attention ◽  
Complicated Task

When Patricio Aylwin accepted the Chilean presidential sash in March 1990 an era in Latin American politics dominated by authoritarian regimes came to an end. Virtually every country in the region now had to grapple with the complicated task of consolidating fragile democratic regimes. Surprisingly, given what may be the emergence of a new democratic era, one is hardpressed even to begin answering an obvious question: How will years of non-democratic rule affect future efforts to establish democratic political processes in their wake? Despite recent attention to the ways in which different types of transition process affect the prospects for democracy, the impact of authoritarian rule on subsequent political processes remains largely unstudied.

The Peruvian Experiment in Retrospect

1987 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane S. Jaquette ◽  
Abraham F. Lowenthal
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Third World ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Third World

NO country in Latin America, and few anywhere in the third world, was the subject of more social science writing during the late 1970s and early 1980s than Peru. Books, monographs, articles, and dissertations poured forth from Peru itself, from elsewhere in Latin America, and from the United States, Western Europe, and even the Soviet Union and Japan.

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