Democratic Consolidation in Latin America : Comparative Case Analysis and Theoretical Revision

拉丁美洲的民主巩固:比较案例分析与理论修正

基本信息

批准号：
12620075
负责人：
TSUNEKAWA Keiichi
金额：
$ 1.22万
依托单位：
The University of Tokyo
依托单位国家：
日本
项目类别：
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
财政年份：
2000
资助国家：
日本
起止时间：
2000 至 2001
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-12620075/
关键词：
Democratic Consolidation Democracy Latin America Constructivism

项目摘要

This research aims at looking at the existing theories of democratic consolidation and searching for a better theory through analyzing the democratization process of five Latin American countries : Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and E1 Salvador. Although some Latin American countries still observe illegal exercise of power by the govemments or the lack of political order, it is the first time in its history that democratic regimes spread so broadly and persistently in the region. Theories of democratic consolidation are multiple. On the one hand, there are authors who emphasize the importance of long-term structural factors such as economic development and the resultant social pluralism, power balance among social classes and the growth of "civil society." On the other hand, there are theories that emphasize short-term behavioral factors such as political strategies, modes of democratic transition and political institutions. This research, however, revealed that all of these theories are highly insufficient in explaining Latin American experiences. The common factor shared by all Latin American countries with different social and political characteristics is the long exhaustive social conflict that precipitated political learning for peaceful co-existence among the elite and the general public. The most important factor that explains the persistence of democratic regimes in Latin America is the broad national consensus with regard to the importance of the procedural democracy regardless of the policy result on the economic and social matters. This means that a reverse learning on the meaninglessness of democratic regimes may be precipitated if people's economic and social aspirations are not met for an extended period of time. In any case, this view that emphasizes political learning through inter-subjective interactions is affinitive to the constructivist approach.

本研究旨在通过分析五个拉美国家：智利、巴西、墨西哥、秘鲁和E1萨尔瓦多的民主化进程，审视现有的民主巩固理论，并寻找更好的理论。尽管一些拉美国家仍然存在政府非法行使权力或缺乏政治秩序的情况，但民主政权在该地区如此广泛和持久地传播，这在拉美国家历史上还是第一次。民主巩固的理论有多种。一方面，有些作者强调长期结构性因素的重要性，例如经济发展以及由此产生的社会多元化、社会阶层之间的权力平衡以及“公民社会”的成长。另一方面，也有一些理论强调政治策略、民主转型模式和政治制度等短期行为因素。然而，这项研究表明，所有这些理论都不足以解释拉丁美洲的经历。具有不同社会和政治特征的所有拉美国家的共同因素是长期彻底的社会冲突，促成了精英与普通民众和平共处的政治学习。拉丁美洲民主政权得以持续存在的最重要因素是，无论经济和社会事务的政策结果如何，对于程序民主的重要性都存在广泛的全国共识。这意味着，如果人们的经济和社会愿望长期得不到满足，可能会促使人们认识到民主政权毫无意义。无论如何，这种强调通过主体间互动进行政治学习的观点与建构主义方法是相近的。