19
Declining State of Democratic Institutions and the Implications for Governance
of local and national government.* However, the anti-institutionalism
advanced by a nouveau
caudillismo
(as described below) has rendered
these structures and laws irrelevant, with the corresponding anti-
institutionalism making it difficult to respond to the real needs of
citizens. The populist demagoguery of many leaders around the region
portrays these laws and institutions as inventions of the West or the
North. Far from institutional governance being championed as the
solution to poverty and injustice, in too many countries it is portrayed
as the roadblock to a more responsive, social justice. This has harmed
democratic government in too many countries in the region.
The challenge of excessive personalization of leadership has impeded
democratic institutions from consolidating in Latin America.
Throughout its history, Latin America has suffered under the weight of
caudillos
, strong feudal overlords who ran their countries as fiefdoms.
Rule of law always rested upon the final word of these strongmen. Their
names are oft and energetically repeated, and they have established
their place as legendary figures in the annals of Latin American history;
people like Juan Vicente Gomez, Anastasio Somoza, Juan Velazco
Alvarado, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and many others.
During the last half of the 20
th
century the governments of these
countries rapidly shed their
caudillos
and embraced an increasingly
established, yet still delicate, democracy. This transition to democracy
was rife with abuses of power, and the institutions meant to protect
the nascent democracies of the region remained feeble. All too
content to continue to consolidate power, wealth and prestige in
the executive, and without the investment from governments in
institutions, newly created governments continued to fall prey to a
renewed authoritarianism. In the last decade of the 20
th
century and
the first decade of the 21
st
, this authoritarianism began to take a new
form. Elected presidents – many times good presidents – began to see
themselves as irreplaceable. They consolidated power in their already
strong presidential systems and continued the pattern of weakening the
* An exception may be Venezuela and other Bolivarian Alliance countries, which have recently rewritten
much of their legislation to allow for an ideological takeover of the institutions.
