The Right and Democracy in Latin America

DOUGLAS A. CHALMERS is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and Director of the University's Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies. He was Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and has been visiting professor at the Colegio Nacional de Mexico. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on Latin America.MARIO DO CARMO CAMPELLO DE SOUZA is Professor of Political Science at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University, and at IDESP (Instituto de Estudos Economicos, Socias e Politicos de Sao Paulo) and a former Edward Larocque Tinker Visiting Professor at Columbia University. She is the author of various articles on political parties in Brazil.ATILIO BORON is an Argentine political sociologist and director of EURAL (Center for European and Latin American Research) in Buenos Aires, and has been Professor of Political Science at FLASCO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) and at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is a former Edward Larocque Tinker Visiting Professor at Columbia University, and is the author of numerous articles on Chilean, Argentine, and West European politics.

Latin America underwent remarkable change in the 1980s as country after country cast off authoritarian regimes and instituted democratic policies and practices. Since then, the Left has weakened, and many of the groups commonly labeled the Right--including traditional groups linked with the Church, the military, and the economically privileged, as well as new groups of neo-liberal intellectuals and businessmen--have moved to a new form of active electoral politics. The future of democracy in the region will depend heavily on how these groups act. This book of up-to-date studies by a group of research scholars from Latin America and the United States examine the factors essential to an understanding of the Right's goals, organizations, and commitment to democracy. The book is divided into four distinctive sections, the first of which deals with the general characteristics of the Right. The following three sections explore in-depth the political strategies and organizations of the Right in elections and governing coalitions, the conservative trends that are changing the Church, and the fate of neo-liberal ideas among businessmen traditionally dependent on the State. Several chapters are devoted to the distinctive dynamics in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.Taken together, the essays in this book document the profound changes of the Right. But it also shows that the impact of the Right on democracy--whether it will improve it or weaken it--is not yet clear. The Right is increasingly involved in democratic institutions, but political parties are still weak and authoritarian temptations still strong. In this time of economic crises, business organizations have remained fragile. Conservative social policies have created terrifying social problems. Offering a unique analysis of the contemporary Right, this work is an essential tool in understanding the fate of democracy in post-Cold War Latin America.

This volume considers the Latin American Right and the movement within that region toward democracy, asking such basic questions as: What are the essential characteristics of the Right and how can the Right move into democratic processes?

IntroductionThe Right and Latin American Democracies by Douglas A. Chalmers, Maria do Carmo Campello de Souza, and Atilio BoronThe Right and the Consolidation of DemocracyConservative Electoral Movements and Democratic Politics: Core Constituencies, Coalition-Building, and the Latin American Electoral Right by Edward L. GibsonSubstantive or Procedural Consensus? Notes on the Latin American Bourgeoisie by Guillermo O'DonnellConservative Political Economy in Latin America and Western Europe: The Political Sources of Privatization by Hector E. SchamisBecoming Democrats? Some Skeptical Considerations on the Right in Latin America by Atilio A. BoronPolitical Forces on the Right: Ideological Currents, Parties and ElectionsThe Contemporary Faces of the Brazilian Right: An Interpretation of Style and Substance by M. Carmo Campello de SouzaThe Role of the Right in Political Change in Mexico, 1982-1988 by Soledad LoaczaElectoral Evolution of the Political Parties of the Right: Argentina, 1983-89 by Ezequiel Gallo and Esteban F. ThomsenReligion, Values and the RightReligion, Revolution and Counterrevolution: The Role of Religious Right in Central America by Margaret E. CrahanThe Latin American Church and the Papacy of Wojtyla by José-Maria GhioThe Ten-Year Crusade toward the Third Christian Millennium: An Account of Evangelization 2000 and Lumen 2000 by Ralph Della CavaThe State, the Private Sector and the RightPrivatization in the Collor Government: Triumph of Liberalism or Collapse of the Developmental State? by Ben Ross SchneiderThe New Right and Political Change in Peru by Francisco Durand"Liberalismo Para Todo Mundo, Menos Eu": Brazil and the Neoliberal Solution by William NylenProfits, Politics and Size: The Political Transformation of Mexican Business by Blanca HerediaSelected BibliographyIndex