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This article analyzes the apparently dysfunctional democracies that haven become common in Latin America. Although democratic in the conventional sense that national leadership is periodically contested and renewed through standardized electoral procedures, such regimes also exhibit systematic political dysfunctionality. The author evaluates experiences with democracy in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela in order to illustrate this concept, and examines their comparative and theoretical implications.

Since the end of Second World War until now, traditional party systems have fallen or at least have suffered important changes. This change is described in this article, along with its causes & the way they have operated in order to change traditional party systems. Citizens' political preferences arose basically, although not exclusively, from citizens' insertion in the labor market, in their family & enterprises organizations. The industrialization process & the changes imposed by the development of welfare state has generated different trends & patterns which have influenced in the distribution of citizens' political preferences. At the macro level, distribution of citizens' political preferences has changed its dimension from distributive policies (lef-right) to the dimension of structure of sociocultural governance. These changes have influenced political parties' strategies. Parties are sensitive to citizens' preferences, as the decline of clientelism reflects and, consequently they adapt to the changes, always inside the frame of the possibilities that the social structure offers, its own party history, & the restrictive economic situation & crisis of current welfare states. As a result of these changes, party systems have become more complex & diversified, leaving to social movements & interest groups a wide range of action: all the issues & realms of electoral competition which cannot be interpreted within the space defined by the two dimensions of distribution that rule partidist competition. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article presents several elements of the current re-examination underway of the legitimacy of liberal democracy in multinational settings that are relevant for democratic federalism. After a brief summary of the characteristics of the main kinds of federal agreements in current democracies, the bases will be laid for a proposal for federal arrangements in liberal democracies that better meet the needs of multinational societies, & that may be called plural federalism. The key question revolves around how liberal federalism affects the quality of multinational democracies. While currently it may be useful to re-examine some of the theoretical assumptions of democratic liberalism in multinational democracies, it may also be useful to re-examine the kind of federalism linked to democratic liberalism. References. Adapted from the source document.

During the last decade a rising tide of voices on both sides of the Atlantic has blamed the news media for growing public disengagement, ignorance of civic affairs, & mistrust of government. This idea has developed into something of an unquestioned orthodoxy in the popular literature in the United States. A related viewpoint more common in Europe regards the growth of professional political marketing by parties, including the m6lange of spin, packaging & pollsters, as also contributing towards public cynicism. But is the conventional wisdom correct? This paper, based on a systematic examination of the role of political communication in post-industrial societies, argues that the process of political communication by the news media & by parties is not responsible for civic disengagement. Part I summarizes the core assumptions in different theories of media malaise. Part 11 examines some of the key structural trends in the news industry that many believe are responsible for media malaise. Part III examines evidence for the impact of attention to e news media on selected indicators of civic engagement. The conclusion develops the theory of "a virtuous circle" to explain the pattern we find. Rather than mistakenly "blaming the messenger," the study concludes that we need to understand & confront more deep-rooted flaws in systems of representative government. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

El texto refleja las consideraciones sociológicas y filosóficas sobre nuestro tiempo y espacio en el lenguaje simbólico y la voz del poeta. ; This text deals with sociological and philosophical considerations on our time and space in the symbolic and poetic language.

[ES] La Asamblea Legislativa es una institución política fundamental en las democracias representativas, y los sistemas electorales constituyen uno de los determinantes claves de su composición y el proceso de elaboración de políticas que tiene lugar en su interior. Las reformas electorales que han tenido lugar en América Central, a lo largo de las últimas dos décadas, han jugado un papel crucial en el proceso de democratización y consolidación de estos regímenes poliárquicos; y sin embargo, nuestro desconocimiento en la materia es manifiesto. Este trabajo se ocupa de sugerir algunas de las líneas de investigación a partir de las cuales podría abordarse el estudio del funcionamiento legislativo a partir del análisis comparado de los procesos de reforma electoral. ; [EN] Legislatures constitute the key political institution in representative democracies and electoral systems are the key variables affecting their composition and the process of policy making that takes place within this arena. Electoral reforms and their connection to the legislative party system have played a critical role in the process of democratization and consolidation in these recently emerged democracies, however our ignorance on the matter is manifest. This paper specifically address the question of how are electoral arrangements and the contemporary processes of electoral reform affecting the structure and general perfonnance of the recently established Central American parliaments.

This study focuses on the survival of Republican values in our present-day democratic system, values which have been analysed from a dual perspective: on the one hand, the current interest in the principles and values fostered by centre-left governments and organizations during the Second Republic, and on the other, the presence of these principles and values in our present-day democratic system. Consensus, social reform, political pluralism, devolution, and educational and cultural advancement, besides being democratic values and principles, are currently pointing towards a specific way of understanding politics and public affairs, understood as proximity and service to, and respect for all citizens. Moreover, there are similarities between the two regimes; in both cases, the immediate political background was marked by a dictatorship, both expressly declared an intention to establish themselves as democracies and subsequently underwent a transitional process marked by consensus, and both had similar aims. However, there are also significant differences between the two, not only in terms of the system of government, but also the attribution of State powers, the declaration of rights and the way these were put into practice, and the limits of consensus. While we cannot talk of continuity between the two regimes, the Second Republic may be seen as a short-lived precedent to the current democratic system, and one which succumbed to the strength of anti-democratic organizations and interests. ; Este trabajo trata de la pervivencia de los valores republicanos en el régimen democrático actual, que se han analizado desde una doble perspectiva: el interés que despiertan los principios y valores activados por los gobiernos y organizaciones del centro izquierda durante la II República, y la presencia de esos mismos principios y valores en el ordenamiento democrático actual. Consenso, reformismo social, pluralismo político, descentralización del Estado y promoción de la educación y la cultura, aparte de ser valores y ...

This paper highlights three events that have marked Latin America in recent times: the end of the Cold War, the end of the principle of continental security as the axis of United States policies towards the region, and the emergence of poor democracies. This new reality constitutes the basis for analyzing integration processes, ties with the world, and relations between the United States and Latin America. If in the eighties the Latin American nations were disconnected from each other, gradually the new democracies moved towards integration. When analyzing the relations between Latin America and Europe, the need to follow the European example, where economic measures are guaranteed by political agreements, is noticed. To implement the proposals of a large continental market, the consensus of Latin American societies must be counted on, and economic measures must be legitimized by them. ; En este trabajo se destacan tres hechos que han marcado a América Latina en el último tiempo: el fin de la Guerra Fría, el término del principio de la seguridad continental como eje de las políticas de Estados Unidos hacia la región y el surgimiento de democracias pobres. Esta nueva realidad constituye la base para analizar los procesos de integración, las vinculaciones con el mundo y las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y América Latina. Si en los ochenta las naciones latinoamericanas estaban desvinculadas entre sí, paulatinamente las nuevas democracias se encaminaron a la integración. Al analizar las relaciones entre América Latina y Europa, se advierte la necesidad de seguir el ejemplo europeo, donde las medidas económicas están garantizadas por los acuerdos políticos. Para implementar las propuestas de un gran mercado continental debe contarse con el consenso de las sociedades latinoamericanas y las medidas económicas deben estar legitimadas por ellas.

Examines explanations commonly given for the crisis of liberal democracy, especially for the more peripheral, recently established democratic states. While conventional analyses of the crisis are pessimistic, either through trivializing the problem or suggesting that the problem's source lies beyond the reach of existing national systems in political action, the argument here is that the crisis can respond to political solutions. After a detailed sketch of liberal democracies in advanced (European) countries, the focus changes to states outside the core of the democratic tradition. Democratic malaise in advanced democracies can be traced to the combined generalized economic crisis of the 1970s, & a crisis of US leadership of the capitalist world. Political & economic suggestions for defusing the crisis of liberal democracies in Europe are presented. Adapted from the source document.