Fortifying Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America

Fortifying Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America PDF Author: Lydia Brashear Tiede
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal law
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description

Fortifying Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America

Fortifying Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America PDF Author: Lydia Brashear Tiede
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal law
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description


Elusive Reform

Elusive Reform PDF Author: Mark Ungar
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781588260352
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Get Book Here

Book Description
Democracy cannot exist, proclaims Ungar (political science, City U. of New York-Brooklyn College) without the rule of law, which he defines as comprising an independent effective judiciary, state accountability to the law, and citizen accessibility to conflict-resolution mechanisms. He looks to Latin American countries to illustrate how stable democracies are undermined by executive power and judicial disarray that prevent the rule of law from taking hold. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Enforcing the Rule of Law

Enforcing the Rule of Law PDF Author: Enrique Peruzzotti
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822972883
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Get Book Here

Book Description
Reports of scandal and corruption have led to the downfall of numerous political leaders in Latin America in recent years. What conditions have developed that allow for the exposure of wrongdoing and the accountability of leaders? Enforcing the Rule of Law examines how elected officials in Latin American democracies have come under scrutiny from new forms of political control, and how these social accountability mechanisms have been successful in counteracting corruption and the limitations of established institutions. This volume reveals how legal claims, media interventions, civic organizations, citizen committees, electoral observation panels, and other watchdog groups have become effective tools for monitoring political authorities. Their actions have been instrumental in exposing government crime, bringing new issues to the public agenda, and influencing or even reversing policy decisions. Enforcing the Rule of Law presents compelling accounts of the emergence of civic action movements and their increasing political influence in Latin America, and sheds new light on the state of democracy in the region.

The Unfinished Transition to Democracy in Latin America

The Unfinished Transition to Democracy in Latin America PDF Author:
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135907226
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description


Democratic Accountability in Latin America

Democratic Accountability in Latin America PDF Author: Scott Mainwaring
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191531340
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume on democratic accountability addresses one of the burning issues on the agenda of policy makers and citizens in contemporary Latin America: how democratic leaders in Latin America can improve accountability while simultaneously promoting governmental effectiveness. Written by well-known scholars form both Latin America and the United States, the volume enhances understanding of these key themes, which are central to the future of democracy in Latin America. - ;This volume on democratic accountability addresses one of the burning issues on the agenda of policy makers and citizens in contemporary Latin America. In much of Latin America, disenchantment and cynicism have set in regarding the quality of elected governments raising the prospect of a new round of democratic erosion and breakdowns. One of the important emerging challenges for improving the quality of democracy resolves around how to build more effective mechanisms of accountability. A widespread perception prevails in much of the region that government officials are not sufficiently subject to routinized controls by oversight agencies. Corruption, lack of oversight, impunity of state actors, and improper use of public resources are major problems in most countries of the region. Dealing with these issues is paramount to restoring and deepening democratic legitimacy. The fundamental question in this volume is how democratic leaders in Latin America can improve accountability while simultaneously promoting governmental effectiveness. These issues have acquired urgency in contemporary Latin America because of heightened public concern about corruption and improper governmental actions on the one hand, yet on the other, uncertainty about the potential tradeoff between tightened accountability of officials and effective policy results. The volume enhances understanding of three key issues. First, it enriches understanding of the state of non-electoral forms of democratic accountability in contemporary Latin America. What are some of the major shortcoming in democratic accountability? How can they be addressed? What are some major innovations in the efforts to enhance democratic accountability? A second contribution of the volume is conceptual. Accountability is a key concept in the social sciences, yt its meaning varies widely form one author to the next. The authors in this volume, especially in the first four chapters, explicitly debate how bet to define and delimit the concept. Finally the volume also furthers understanding of the interactions between various mechanism and institutions of accountability. Many of the authors address how electoral accountability (the accountability of elected officials to the voters) interact with the forms of accountability in which state agencies oversee and sanction public officials. The volume provides extensive treatment of this important but hitherto under-explored interaction. -

The (un)rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America

The (un)rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America PDF Author: Juan E. Méndez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study describes a Latin American legal system which punishes only the poor and a democratic state which fails to control its own agents' arbitrary practices. The contributors argue that judicial reform cannot be seperated from human rights and that justice must be made available to the poor.

The Unfinished Transition to Democracy in Latin America

The Unfinished Transition to Democracy in Latin America PDF Author: Juan Carlos Calleros
Publisher: Taylor & Francis US
ISBN: 9780415957632
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines the political evolution of the judiciary – a usually overlooked political actor – and its capacity to contribute to the process of democratic consolidation in Latin America during the 1990s. Calleros analyzes twelve countries in order to assess the independence, impartiality, political strength and efficiency of the judicial branch. The picture that emerges – with the one exception of Costa Rica – is the persistence of weak judicial systems, unable in practice to check other branches of government, including the executive and the military, while not quite effective in fully protecting human rights or in implementing due process of law guarantees. Aggravating issues, such as corruption, heavy case backlogs, overcrowding of prisons, circumvention of laws and personal vulnerability of judges, make the judiciary the least evolved of the three branches of government in the Latin American transitions to democracy.

Transparency and Rule of Law in Latin America

Transparency and Rule of Law in Latin America PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 88

Get Book Here

Book Description


Violent Democracies in Latin America

Violent Democracies in Latin America PDF Author: Enrique Desmond Arias
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822392038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Get Book Here

Book Description
Despite recent political movements to establish democratic rule in Latin American countries, much of the region still suffers from pervasive violence. From vigilantism, to human rights violations, to police corruption, violence persists. It is perpetrated by state-sanctioned armies, guerillas, gangs, drug traffickers, and local community groups seeking self-protection. The everyday presence of violence contrasts starkly with governmental efforts to extend civil, political, and legal rights to all citizens, and it is invoked as evidence of the failure of Latin American countries to achieve true democracy. The contributors to this collection take the more nuanced view that violence is not a social aberration or the result of institutional failure; instead, it is intimately linked to the institutions and policies of economic liberalization and democratization. The contributors—anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians—explore how individuals and institutions in Latin American democracies, from the rural regions of Colombia and the Dominican Republic to the urban centers of Brazil and Mexico, use violence to impose and contest notions of order, rights, citizenship, and justice. They describe the lived realities of citizens and reveal the historical foundations of the violence that Latin America suffers today. One contributor examines the tightly woven relationship between violent individuals and state officials in Colombia, while another contextualizes violence in Rio de Janeiro within the transnational political economy of drug trafficking. By advancing the discussion of democratic Latin American regimes beyond the usual binary of success and failure, this collection suggests more sophisticated ways of understanding the challenges posed by violence, and of developing new frameworks for guaranteeing human rights in Latin America. Contributors: Enrique Desmond Arias, Javier Auyero, Lilian Bobea, Diane E. Davis, Robert Gay, Daniel M. Goldstein, Mary Roldán, Todd Landman, Ruth Stanley, María Clemencia Ramírez

Transition To Democracy In Latin America

Transition To Democracy In Latin America PDF Author: Irwin P Stotzky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000009882
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
The transition to democracy in Latin America encompasses adjustments in norms and institutions regarding the strictures of the rule of law. This book addresses the critical role of the judiciary in the transition. The contributors examine the significance of the independence of the judiciary, which ensures institutional integrity and freedom from p