BR Between Tyranny

Between Tyranny and Anarchy: A History of Democracy in Latin America, 1800-2006
Erika Gabriela Pani Bano

The Americas, Volume 67, Number 1, July 2010, pp. 132-133 (Review)
Published by The Academy of American Franciscan History DOI: 10.1353/tam.0.0288
For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tam/summary/v067/67.1.pani-bano.html
Access Provided by Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & St.University & (Viva) at 06/08/11 9:21AM GMT
132
REVIEWS
excluded. In other words, the margins of his expanded political sphere remain ill-defined, as perhaps they must. Moreover, as intriguing as his context chapters are, they do not provide as much elementary information on the rise of the PRP and its baseline ideological positions as the non-specialist might need. These quibbles aside, A Place in Politics proposes a bold reassessment of early twentieth-century politics that will appeal to Brazilianists and non-Brazilianists alike. In its strong conceptual projectand even more in its thoughtful elaboration of that projectWoodards book is a welcome contribution to Latin American political history. Williams College Williamstown, Massachusetts ROGER A. KITTLESON
Between Tyranny and Anarchy: A History of Democracy in Latin America, 1800-2006. By Paul W. Drake. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. Pp. xiii, 330. Map. Tables. Notes. Index. $65.00 cloth; $24.95 paper. Paul W. Drake has undertaken a daunting task. In a little over 300 pages written in crisp prose, he has managed to tell the story of democracy in Latin America from independence to the present. In an analysis that aims at dismantling the pervasive image of Latin American history as a woeful tale of uninterrupted, monolithic authoritarianism, he suggests the reasons why general theoriesLatin Americas pathology of democracy (p. 129) in the nineteenth century, modernization, dependency, or corporatism in the twentiethhave failed to account for democracys trajectory in the region. His study is both meticulous and wide-ranging. By focusing on the evolution of various institutional elementsconstitutions, elections, the organization and interaction of presidential, legislative, and judiciary powers, and political partiesand by examining the way in which they responded to pressures from within and without, such as persistent social inequalities and elite strategies or intervention from abroad and globalization, this book both draws a complex picture of a dense 200-year continental process and reveals the peculiar developments in each of the regions 20 countries. The author chronicles the development of precocious and resilient constitutional and democratic trends in Latin America. He shows that despite the regions poverty, backwardness and political instability, republicanism remained the dominant political aspiration and virtually the only intellectual justification for the right to rule (p. 89), even when most of the rest of the world had not even begun the journey (p. 87). He shows the ways in which even inoperative constitutions and fraudulent elections created an institutional path-dependency that has drawn the contours of politics despite recurrent bouts with authoritarianism and human rights abuses. His book highlights the efforts of divided and embattled elites to construct stable governments within a framework of constitutionalism, the separation of powers, political representation, and oftentimes federalism. Its careful consideration of the intricate, unexpected ways in which political, social, economic, ideological, and diplomatic factors play off each other in particular circumstances, enhancing or restricting the effects of institutional engineering (p. 190), offers valu-
REVIEWS
133
able insights to those concerned with constructing substantive and meaningful versions of democracy in the region. Nonetheless, the end result is less persuasive than the authors stated objectives and the impressive array of evidence marshaled by the author would suggest. Although the book surveys a very extensive, interdisciplinary, and up-to-date bibliography, it does not engage with it. Despite the possibilities for dialogue, the provocative hypotheses put forth by recent studies of democracy as it was and not as scholars think it should have been, are left undisturbed. A rigid classification of 200 years of politics into two competing models of protected versus popular democracy (p. 2) obscures the readers appreciation of the diverse, vibrant, highly experimental, deeply problematic attempts at democratic governance. Despite his skillful systematization of profuse and detailed information, Drake paints an overall picture in which the old, dismal vision of Latin America creeps back in, with its ubiquitous caudillos and its extreme centralism (p. 2). It is a vision that can still be reduced to the pithy phrases of Latin Americas heroic and frustrated statesmen. Democracy ends up being something that rolls over the continent, in subsequent waves (p. 201). Ideologies, practices, and institutions, such as liberalism or Marxism, democracy, and judicial review are described as foreign (p. 56), exotic (p. 78), and imported (p. 133). They are manhandled by slightly confused elites who exhibit only a vague understanding (p. 60) of modern political concepts. In the end, Drakes vision of democracy in Latin America is that of a doubting Thomas who has seen, but is not quite convinced. El Colegio de Mxico Mexico City, Mexico ERIKA GABRIELA PANI BANO
Social Foundations of Limited Dictatorship: Networks and Private Protection During Mexicos Early Industrialization. By Armando Razo. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. Pp. xv, 246. Figures. Tables. Appendix. Notes. References. Index. $65.00 cloth. There is always a tendency to regard the establishment of successful dictatorships teleologically, although to paraphrase Enoch Powell, every political career ends in failure. Armando Razos principal interest is how Porfirio Daz came to be a successful dictator, at least in terms of conventional measures of success, such as tenure in office or the putative doubling in the real per capita growth of income. For the half century prior to Dazs regime, of course, no predecessor even came close. Razos answer is adequately summarized in the books title: through the social foundations of a limited dictatorship. Daz headed an authoritarian government, not a totalitarian state, and there was room for maneuver. The dictatorship was, in a sense, characterized by a sort of stable equilibrium between Daz and his potential rivals, who ultimately became the beneficiaries of his economic policies as well. What appears very clearly in Razos research is that the decisive moment for the emergence of dictatorship came around 1890, a moment that coincided with the appearance of an economic surplus large enough to be distributed to cement the requisite political and social alliances. The details of this largess are of no

BR Between Tyranny

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

BR Between Tyranny

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

BR Between Tyranny

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Between Tyranny and Anarchy: A History of Democracy in Latin America, 1800-2006

Erika Gabriela Pani Bano

Published by The Academy of American Franciscan History DOI: 10.1353/tam.0.0288

For additional information about this article

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.