How to democratize the state? Suggestions of the Latin American Left in the 21st Century

The article is devoted to the peculiarites of the political and institutional initiatives of the left forces in the field of the state democratization in the countries of Latin America. The author correlates these initiatives with the practice of historical predecessors and with the context of everyday's contemporary activities of the Left forces. Additionally, the author explains the relevance of the topic of political democracy in the conceptual developments of the Latin America left. The author focuses in the contribution of the most powerful political union of the Latin America left, Foro de Sao Paulo, to the problems of democratizing the political system. Using solid basis of primary sources, he shows that all the main directions of the Latin American left movement call into question the effectiveness of the liberal concept of democracy. At the contrary, the ideas of "quality democracy" and participatory democracy are shared in the 21st century by almost all areas of the Latin American left movement. However, the author also clarifies with specific examples that there are serious differences in the policy pursued by those forces that are guided by various patterns within the paradigm of "socialism of the XXI century", and those who belong to the left center.