Democratic Breakdown in Paraguay and Venezuela: The Shape of Things to Come for Latin America?

Abstract

The decade of the 1990s saw advances in democratization and civilian control of the armed forces in Latin America, but there are warning signs on the horizon. Civil/military miovements developed in Venezuela and Paraguay and continue to pose a threat to democracy there. Moreover, these later-day versions of military-based populism serve as a warning to the region as a whole. While most scholars have focused on the issue of democratic consolidation in the region, the twin case studies of Venezuela and Paraguay demonstrate the renewed relevance of Juan Linz's breakdown paradigm. Although Venezuela and Paraguay are atypical of the newly emergent democracies in the region. they may, in fact, be leading indicators of likely problems elsewhere.