ENGLISH BRIEFING

It is necessary and important, both for the leaders and the society, to assess the progress and the steps backwards that Latin American countries show in their democratic development, because democracy is an endless path, and many times we the citizens are lost in it, without references indicating whether and how much we have moved forward or backwards.  

We make our contribution by presenting our annual report Latin America Democratic Development Index IDD-Lat 2007, through which –for the fifth consecutive year- Polilat.com and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation analyse and evaluate the behaviour of societies, leaders, and institutions of democracy in 18 different countries of the continent.

Highlights of this year’s measurement:

·           The General Index for this year indicates that the Central American region has made a step backwards, because the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala show the largest inter-annual fall comparative with the IDD-Lat for the prior year.

·           A regional progress is revealed in the Political Rights and Civil Liberties Dimension, bearing an average increase of 4%, which results mainly from an improvement in the gender indicator, due to the inclusion of women in the levels of political decision which took from 16.9% to 20.2% the participation of women in executive positions in the State.

·           There is a slight decrease of 2% in the average of the Institutional Quality and Political Efficiency Dimension. We may highlight the fall of El Salvador and the Dominican Republic and the significant improvement of Peru.

·           The fall of several Central American countries in the area of social development, which is one of the objectives of democracy, is noteworthy.  Costa Rica and Panama are among the most developed countries, whereas Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic are among the less developed ones. Venezuela and Peru also reflect a fall in social indicators. Among those with higher annual increase, we may mention Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Uruguay.

·           In the field of Economic Development, there is an improvement in the average of Latin American countries; however, the fall of Chile, Mexico, and Colombia remain noteworthy.

Hyperpresidencialism and Fading Parliaments

In furtherance of our concern for the scarce advance during the last years in our Institutional Quality and Political Efficiency Index (Dimension III), in this year’s report we analyse, as a central topic, the concentration of attributions and power around the presidential figure and the simultaneous fall of parliamentary institutions in the democracies of the region. Our choice is based not on the fact that the foregoing are new phenomena but that there has been a dangerous tendency, common among ruling elites and in the centre of societies, which minimises or just disregards the role that a parliament plays in the regional democracy; at the same time, exceptional attributions are assigned to or held by the Executive Branch.

The presidential system, characteristic of the democracies of the region, vests the Executive in a chief of state who is also the chief of government, enacts laws, manages the internal or external policy of the Nation and appoints his or her ministers and advisors free of interference from other branches of the state. This system has derived in excesses that boost the exclusion of the Legislature and the Judiciary and create institutional gaps which not only degrade the institutional functioning but also pave the way for recurrent government crises and for the exceptional measures used to overcome them.

Latin American countries reveal an institutional pattern which was brewed on the basis of anarchy and local leaderships which succeeded the breaking-off with Europe during the birth of its republics. These leaderships lead to the foundation of the new states around personal leaderships having strong characters. Such original defect was firmly boosted by different types of dictatorships, which took place in most countries, and finally took the shape of an exacerbated presidential system. This system is currently a characteristic intrinsic to the exercise of power in the region, to the extent that it constitutes the natural way in which Latin American democracies function.

Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia rank first in the list of countries with the greatest deal of attributions vested in the Executive. Notwithstanding, the assignment of extraordinary powers to the president, together with the enactment of laws to prolong mandates and to facilitate re-elections, is a growing tendency present in the whole region

The democratic society must react if it were to consolidate an institutional frame favouring stability, justice, and equitable development. It is essential to recover the free confrontation of ideas which arises from the immense space of liberty, whose natural habitat in democracy is situated in the Parliament.

It is necessary the existence of a responsible opposition, critical of actions taken by the government, which should be capable of offering alternative projects to the society.

It is imperative to recover the parliamentary functions (legislative power, control of government and representing the diversity of society), which today are blurred or, in some cases, just disappeared.

From this standpoint of democracy analysis, represented by the IDD-Lat, we urge political and social forces of the region to redouble their efforts towards the unavoidable objective of recovering the figure of Parliament and of re-establishing control measures to the exercise of power of the Executive. 

                         Christoph Korneli                                            Jorge Arias

                     Konrad Adenauer Foundation                           Polilat.com

In average, the region performance has experienced a slight improvement (1%); however, the contrast between steps backwards and forward comparative with the prior year has significant variations among the countries.

A scarce number of countries remain at the high democratic development level. Only Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay (17% of the total number of countries evaluated) reach said level, thereby repeating the constant of the last five years.

Only six countries exceed the regional average of IDD-Lat (5.113) – those mentioned for their high development levels (Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay), and Panama, Argentina, and Mexico.

Development Evolution

The countries which have improved this year (with an increase higher than 5%) are Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, and Uruguay.

Those which present a scarce positive or negative variation (less than 5%) are five countries: Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Paraguay, and Venezuela.

The following countries have worsen: El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

This map shows the zones where the Democratic Development Index improved in the region. The table below indicates the tendency of the 18 countries of Latin America from 2002 to the date[1]

EVOLUTION OF THE LAST SIX YEARS

The regional average (5.114) has increased again, a constant tendency since the 2003 Development Index. This improvement is due to the growth of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay and, to a lesser extent, to that of Colombia, Honduras, and Chile.

As seen in the previous map, the Andean Region is the zone where the largest increase in the Democratic development Index is recorded. In the MERCOSUR area, some countries have improved.

Few countries exceed the regional average – only six, representing 35% of the region, namely Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay.

We may divide the countries analysed in the IDD-Lat in countries with “high” development, i.e. from 7.51 to 10.0 points; with “middle” development (from 4.51 to 7.50); and with “low” development (from 1.0 to 4.5)

In the first group we find only Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. In the second group are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama – six countries, which represent 40% of the region.

Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela belong to the third group and total 50% of the region.

Taking into account the behaviour of the countries in the three dimensions analysed in the IDD-Lat, it is to be highlighted that the average of Dimension II, Respect for political Rights and Civil Liberties, has improved by more than 4% as compared to the 2006 average. The average has also increased by more than 1% in the Capacity of Generating Policies towards Welfare Sub-dimension in the Effective Exercise of Power to Govern Dimension. Conversely, the average of the Institutional Quality and Political Efficiency Dimensions and of the Capacity of Generating Policies towards Economic Efficiency Sub-dimension have decreased; in the first case, almost 2%, and in the second, almost 3%.

The country that has achieved the greatest progress comparative with the previous Democratic Development Index is Ecuador, bearing an increase of more than 43% (2.237 in 2006 against 3.206 in 2007). The country which has made the least progress is the Dominican Republic, decreasing more than 30% in comparison with last year’s value.

            2007 Idd-Lat Ranking                                                2002 - 2007 IDD-Lat Evolution