THE TRANSITION TO AUTHORITARIAN ELECTORAL REGIMES IN LATIN-AMERICA

The transition from military to civilian regimes has brought the introduction of electoral processes, the establishment of elected parliaments or congresses, and, in some cases, greater individual freedom, but these regimes have continued to function within an authoritarian institutional framework and to pursue policies totally at variance with democratic procedures. These regimes practice many of the same institutional policies and political processes begun under the military, and for reasons of substance and structure it is appropriate to call them neoauthoritarian. The structure and substance of neoauthoritarianism are discussed and contrasted with those of contemporary mass popular movements. Begins by outlining an alternative conception of democracy, based on past and present political practices in Latin America, that can serve as a model for the formulation of criteria for evaluating democratic and authoritarian tendencies in contemporary Latin American regimes. -from Authors