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The literature maintains that not all populisms are equal. Some are seen as projects of regeneration or democratisation because they would incorporate an excluded people; others are movements that would weaken democracy by promoting exclusion (xenophobia and racism). The former is "left-wing populism" while the latter is "right-wing populism". This paper shows that what is central to populism is its model of democracy, not whether it is situated on the right or the left. To do this, an evaluation is made of the democratic balance of populisms in three countries in Europe (Austria, France and Hungary) and three in Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela). As will be shown, those of the right have no more contributed to the destruction of democracy than those on the left may be presented as democratising successes; but all represent a profound challenge to liberal democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two objectives. Firstly, it proposes rethinking the relationship between populism and democracy, by challenging the positions which create a radical antagonism between these two political dynamics. In order to do this, the paper refers to guidelines put forward by Ernesto Laclau, relating to the rupture and reconstruction of populism understood as political logic. This idea is complemented by contributions from Jacques Ranciére, in order to explore the democratizing dimension of populist movements. Secondly, the article analyzes two examples of contemporary governments - that of Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, and of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil - to show how they invite us to re-examine the theoretical-political debate on the concept of democracy as it is currently understood. Re-establishing the debate on the tension between the formal and the substantive dimension of democracy will allow us to rethink the various ways in which a populist logic might lead to a democratizing logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past democratic presidents were removed by military coups. Since the return of democracy in Latin America there were numerous presidential interruptions, but these took place via constitutional mechanisms. Governments fell, but the democratic regime remained. Over the last three decades, the experiences of presidential dropouts have led to the development of a theory about presidential interruptions, which attempts to explain the phenomenon of new presidential instability in Latin America. This paper touches on seven distinct issues, in order to add insights to the theoretical debate on presidential interruptions. These issues are: 1) presidential interruption's connection with the theory of constitutional succession; 2) the alleged breach of the fixed term and independence of powers; 3) the reconsideration of the alleged new flexibility of the presidential system; 4) timing and rules of the presidential fall and the timing and rules of the president's replacement; 5) the situation of "ruling gaps", both in relation to the presidential interruption, and the president's replacement; 6) the so-called "thin line" between the parliamentary coup and impeachment; 7) expectations and cycles of presidential strength and weakness that show a certain structural vulnerability of the system. These issues add to the debate by introducing new approaches to studying the phenomenon of presidential interruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper studies narratives strategies used by a fair part of Latin-American intellectuals in order to defy the rapid changes taking place in urban society in the late nineteenth century. Furthermore, the paper explores the rhetoric models men of letters used to qualify the limits of the notion of democracy, with the hope that these discursive interventions would limit the access to places of influence where new social actors struggled to enter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the constitutional legislation and the indigenous rights in Latin America. At the beginning, the paper make a historical reflection of the concept of self-determination and the recognition of the ethnic and cultural plurality of the States, as well like as the notion of legal pluralism and democracy of citizenship. It concludes that the reformulation of the Latin American States necessarily will have to reach the legal systems, making them more sensible to the ethnic specificities and the indigenous rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The starting point of this article is the recognition that crisis is a constant when analyzing Latin America. This article asks how do political democracy and economic liberty interact in this region, considering that both are fundamental to development. After an analysis of Latin American diversity, the paper poses the question "Has the "end" of history reached Latin America with the liberal reforms in the region in the 1990s?", and concludes that the actual crisis is not due to a failure of the liberal model but rather to its limited application and lack of transparency. The paper ends with the suggestion that the region needs the "Chilean consensus", less orthodox than the Washington Consensus, but whose foundation is the transformation of the country's mentality, forming the base of its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant trend in Latin America of extending term limits for the presidency in order to allow reelection. There is also evidence that incumbency advantage matters of those presidents seeking reelection in different countries tipically win their electoral bids. Based on a dataset of 137 elections in 18 countries in Latina America, this paper describes the evolution of different reelection schemes since the transition to democracy, reports the success rates for presidential incumbents and estimates the impact of incumbency on electoral margins controlling for institutional and economic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the processes of historical social construction of "indigenous intellectuals", one of the most important and complex stages for ethnic movements in Latin America: redemocratization, the opening of markets and high participation of the grassroots mobilization processes. Thus, this proposition develops a two-point analysis: firstly, the definition and selfdefinition which is made by an indigenous intellectual and, on the other hand, the problems facing this etnointellectual in a scientific and Western semantic framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the idea of civil disobedience as praxis from a Western-hemisphere perspective. The reference to the term "civil" highlights the importance of theorizing about the category of civil society together with the concepts of democracy and praxis, in order to make an explicit justification of civil disobedience in democratic societies and to explore the possibility of extending such disobedience to the field of social praxis beyond the liberal conception of the term. Key Words: Civil society, civil disobedience, democracy, praxis, Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some democracies around the world --including those from Latin America--present equal or higher levels of state repression than the global mean of autocratic regimes. Despite the political and normative relevance of this phenomenon, comparative research on democratic repression is scanty and poorly systematized. Introducing the distinction between centralized and decentralized state repression, and considering advances derived from the global agenda and area studies of Latin America, this article presents a review of theories and empirical explanations that can contribute to the construction of a theory of democratic state repression. Moreover, this paper presents a catalog about the challenges related to the processes of theory generation and empirical evaluation, and offers alternatives to those challenges. The main conclusion is that modeling the use of state violence in terms of principal-agent relations (elected politicians-state security agencies, state security agencies-citizenship) LA-area studies offer fruitful analytical tools for comparative research on democratic state repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin American mass media are going beyond the mere production of information to become agents of social projects from a corporate and socially responsible framework in alliance with external players, particularly civil society organizations (cso). This paper puts forward the results of research work which collects, for the first time, the experiences of some of these alliances between media and cso in Latin America and Colombia for the benefit of Democracy and Human Rights. Via interviews with some of the main players, the study identifies both challenges and lessons for future alliances in an attempt to strengthen the contribution of mass media to the development of democracy and human rights in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The figure of the State somehow constitutes, in terms of political organizations, the most accepted, successful, and even desirable figure for the different societies. A situation centered on three key elements: satisfaction, protection, and recognition. The elements that, according to their interaction, allow the classification of the States based on their political identities and trends. This paper seeks to analyze and, in the light of these elements, open the discussion about the role of safety in the discussion on the State reconfiguration in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]