20
Declining State of Democratic Institutions and the Implications for Governance
legislative and judicial powers. This was done through the extension
of presidential mandates or the modification of term limits and the
use of emergency legislation to consolidate national agendas. This has,
in turn, obstructed the emergence of a more diverse, representative
political class. While many of these have been excellent leaders, some
would argue that the unending presence of the same people in national
political life has weakened democratic governance.
Anti-institutional authoritarianism is most heavily felt in the countries
that are members of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) –
a regional political alliance supported ideologically and economically
by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. In this alliance, political
constitutions are changed as part of a package to weaken the other
branches of government and extend term limits and authority of the
executive. This project with its veneer of legality represents a return to
the feudal days of the previous century. Under this model, strongmen
such as Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Evo Morales and Rafael
Correa (and of course the Castro brothers), bring the institutions of
government under their control and eliminate the separation of powers
in order to set themselves up as the new
caudillos
. They exert control
through a new radical demagoguery which they have poetically dubbed
“participatory democracy.” This new form of “mob rule” demands that
people surrender to the
caudillo
the very idea of basic, inalienable civil
rights in order to “participate” in broad areas defined by the government
– most importantly the vote. The model is propped up by the almost-
constant referenda and elections which provide a questionable legality
to the authoritarian project. For the poor, who heralded the advent
of democracy with the hope that it would improve their wellbeing,
this model is welcomed. The underprivileged segments of society,
which have been disappointed by the lack of upward social mobility
provided by representative democracy in Latin America, have been able
to participate, albeit superficially, in their own governance and receive
economic benefits from this new “participatory democracy.” The fact
that they must follow the ideological line of their
caudillos
is seen, at
least at the beginning, as a small price to pay. The model has been
wildly successful, allowing Chavez to extend political influence over
