Democracy in Latin America: An Unfinished Project

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Notes

¹A similar conclusion, in the Brazilian context, was reached by the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda. In his 1936 work Raízes do Brasil (published in 2012 as Roots of Brazil), he offers a brilliant analysis of the rise of an antagonism between society and politics from the colonial period onwards, impeding the spontaneous formation of the idea of the nation and a sense of nationality in the context of social relations, citizenship, and politics. Since the colonial period, Brazilian elites were strongly influenced by authoritarian traditions, moulded by the Inquisition and the absolutism of the Portuguese crown; their highest priority was to hold on to their power against the mechanisms and procedures that arose from the modern democratic tradition. This phenomenon was exacerbated by the arrival of the Portuguese court in Brazil in 1808. Buarque de Holanda stated that the excesses that resulted both blocked the consolidation of a modern national identity and opened up an abyss between the state, on one hand, and society, on the other.

²Martínez Estrada, E., La radiografía de la Pampa (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1933), p. 185. Martínez Estrada's text has not been published in English, and quotes cited here have been translated for this article. The page numbers cited correspond to the Spanish original.

³Mariátegui, J. M., Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, Tr. Marjory Urquidi (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971), p. xxxiii.

⁴Ibid., p. 7f.

⁵Ibid., p. 25.

⁶Ibid., p. 30.

⁷ Gamonalismo is another term for the phenomenon analyzed by classical sociologists as “traditional domination” [traditionale Herrschaft]. See, for example, Weber's analysis in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1922), p. 122.

⁸Mariátegui, J. M., op. cit., p. 53.

⁹Ibid., p. 30.

¹⁰Ibid., p. 42.

¹¹See, for example, Pereyra, C., Sobre la democracia (Mexico City: Cal y Arena, 1990), pp. 57–63. Pereyra's texts cited here have not been published in English, and as such what is quoted here has been translated for this article. The page numbers cited correspond to the Spanish original.

¹²Ibid., p. 79.

¹³Ibid., p. 31.

¹⁴Ibid., p. 41.

¹⁵Ibid., p. 58f.

¹⁶Ibid., p. 69.

¹⁷Ibid., p. 81.

¹⁸Nino's text cited here, Derecho, moral y política. II. Fundamentos del Liberalismo político. Derechos Humanos y Democracia deliberativa, has not been published in English, and as such has been translated for this article. The page numbers cited correspond to the Spanish original. This particular quote comes from the chapter “Las concepciones fundamentales del Liberalismo”, (Buenos Aires: Gedisa), p. 19.

¹⁹It is here that the origin of the totalitarian intention – which consists of the sacrifice of individuals to benefit a particular (ethnic, class-based, or national) group – can be localised. See Carlos Nino, Derecho, moral y política. II. Fundamentos del Liberalismo político. Derechos Humanos y Democracia deliberativa (Buenos Aires: Gedisa, 1978), pp. 22–3.

²⁰Ibid., p. 20.

²¹Garzón Valdés' text, cited here, has not been published in English, and as such has been translated for this article. The page numbers cited correspond to the Spanish original, titled Instituciones Suicidas. Estudios de Ética y Política.

²²Garzón Valdés, E., Instituciones suicidas: Estudios de Ética y Politica (Mexico City, Paidos/UNAM, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, 2000), p. 17.

²³Ibid., p. 17.

²⁴Ibid., p. 18.

²⁵Ibid., pp. 18–9.

²⁶Ibid., p. 38.

²⁷Ibid., p. 64.

²⁸Ibid., p. 38.

²⁹Ibid., p. 90.

³⁰Ibid., p. 60.

³¹See Robert Alexy, Theorie der Grundrechte (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1986).

³²Garzón Valdés, E., op. cit., p. 100.

³³See, in this sense, the Chilean case, as analysed in Ruiz Schneider, C., Seis ensayos sobre teoría de la democracia (Santiago: Editorial Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello, 1993).

³⁴Mangabeira Unger, R., Politics: A Work in Constructive Social Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 25–6.

³⁵Mangabeira Unger, R., Democracy Realised: The Progressive Alternative (London and New York: Verso, 1998), p. 3.

³⁶Villoro's text cited here, El poder y el valor: fundamentos de una ética política, has not been published in English, and as such has been translated for this article. The page numbers cited correspond to the Spanish original.

³⁷Villoro states that his reflections on democracy and political change are based as much on the experiences of the struggle of the Zapatista National Liberation Army as they are on those of the French opposition to neoliberal economic policies and to the idea of a Europe dominated by the power of large-scale capital. Writing about the EZLN, Villoro calls it a “broad civic movement responding to the aspirations of marginalized groups, political parties of different ideological stripes, and the resistance of a number of associations, in order to … force a transition from a disguised authoritarian regime to a democracy”. See Villoro, L., El poder y el valor: Fundamentos de una ética política (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997), p. 357, footnote 3.

³⁸See Bobbio, N., El futuro de la democracia (Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 1985).

³⁹Villoro, L., op. cit., p. 340.

⁴⁰Ibid., p. 345.

⁴¹Ibid.

⁴²Ibid.

⁴³Ibid.

⁴⁴Ibid.

⁴⁵Ibid., p. 348.

⁴⁶This concern appears in the work of a number of different thinkers, from those with a background in the nationalist-revolutionary tradition to those who consider themselves Marxists, and including a number of others who identify with different currents of populism. See, for example, Dussel, E., Política de la Liberación: Historia mundial y crítica (Madrid: Trotta, 2007).

⁴⁷Laclau and Mouffe consider attempts to deconstruct the central categories of Marxism to be “post-Marxist”, in light of contemporary issues. See Laclau, E. and Mouffe, C., Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London: Verso, 2001), p. ix.

⁴⁸Ibid., p. x.

⁴⁹Ibid., p. xviii.

⁵⁰Laclau, E., On Populist Reason (London and New York: Verso, 2005), p. 9.

⁵¹Ibid., p. 73.

⁵²Ibid., pp. 150–1.

⁵³Ibid., p. 83.

⁵⁴Ibid., p. 86.

⁵⁵Ibid., p. 92.

⁵⁶Pereyra, C., op. cit., p. 98.

⁵⁷Mangabeira Unger, R., Democracy Realised, op. cit., p. 66.