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The Role of Government in Institutionalizing Democratic Governance
best practices in responsive, democratic governance.
1
The government of Brazil, for example, adopted
Bolsa Familia
, a
conditional cash transfer program aimed at curbing poverty and
responding to the needs of the country’s poorest citizens. In Colombia,
the National Procurator has designed performance tools that gauge
the effectiveness of local governments and increase institutional
transparency as a means of fighting corruption.
2
In Peru, the capital
city of Lima has been recognized for the work of several civic-minded
mayors to address some of the city’s most pressing challenges.
These vignettes are but a glimpse into the evolving government-citizen
relationship today, a relationship largely absent prior to the wave of
democratization that swept through the region in the 1980s and 1990s.
While the overall trend has been and remains positive, some very
noteworthy challenges to democracy and democratic institutions
remain throughout the region, as highlighted by Joel Hirst in his chapter,
“Declining State of Democratic Institutions and the Implications for
Governance.” Today, organized crime and its accompanying violence,
continued acceptance of cultures of corruption, and strands of
authoritarian populism pose threats to the region’s democratic progress,
especially in countries where institutions are weak and citizens do not
have confidence in the authorities.
Despite these very real challenges to the generally positive growth of
democratic practices in the region, democratic processes are at the
base of citizen expectations, regardless whether individual leaders
genuinely support or fully implement such practices. The spirit of
democratic citizen participation reached a high-water mark with the
Inter-American Democratic Charter, unanimously approved by the 34
member state of the OAS on September 11, 2001. While adherence
to the Charter remains uneven, the principles of the peoples’ “right to
democracy” and of the region’s governments’ “obligation to promote
and defend it” are the normative standards for this hemisphere.
