Title: The State of Democracy in Latin America
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The State of Democracy in Latin America
Youth and Democracy
End of an era: opportunities and challenges
A new debate: the quality of democracy
My opinion
Daniel Zovatto
Former Brookings Expert
Director for Latin America and the Caribbean - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

Content: As we can see there are reasons to be moderately optimistic but not complacent. A new debate: the quality of democracy
In a Latin American context of weak economic growth (according to the IMF the region will grow below 2 percent) and intense electoral marathons, governments will have to face citizen expectations and demands in conditions of greater austerity. As Augusto de la Torre, Chief Economist of the World Bank for Latin America points out: “ the golden decade, in which the region grew at an average of 5-6 percent per year with decreasing inequality, is over. This year the region will grow, at most, 2 percent, with potential implications of social stagnation.” As a result social conflicts will continue to exist (or even increase) and demands which may not threaten the continuity of democracy, will still make governability more complex. It is therefore important to pay attention to new phenomena or emerging trends in the region, among them, two models of democracy: one republican, the other authoritarian, illustrative of the fracture of the concept of democracy set forth in the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IDC) of 2001. My opinion
Daniel Zovatto
Former Brookings Expert
Director for Latin America and the Caribbean - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Twitter
Zovatto55
The complex and heterogeneous reality of Latin American democracy demands a new type of debate, not on traditional authoritarian regressions but on new types of challenges (processes of stagnation, plateauing or decline) and the new modalities of authoritarianism, more sophisticated and difficult to control, such as the “illiberal democracies” or the “competitive authoritarians.”