Does Marketization Breed Democratization?

The paper examines how the recent surge in protest against economic liberalization has affected the quality of democracy in the Latin American region. Existing research on the consequences of economic liberalization does not expect societal mobilization to take place, much less waves of mobilization to contribute to the deepening of democracy. Moreover, protest and conflict are seen largely as anathema to democracy. Using cross-sectional time-series data from 17 Latin American countries for the 1970-2003 period, this paper provides strong evidence that economic liberalization deepens democracy because of increasing levels of mobilization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]