Is democracy truly necessary for economic growth?

        Smith and Sells give the debate on if democratic regimes are more effective at economic management or authoritarian regimes. The readings was separated by several different variations measuring economic development. They are economic growth(mainly about gross…

Neoliberalism and Poverty. The unfortunate duo

This article by Holzner brings up some concerning pieces of information on the implementation of neoliberal policies. It suggests that while policies of free markets and electoral representation exist, it may still in the end equate to less representative democracy….

Effects of Economic Liberalization

This week’s readings focus on the economic liberalization that came along with transition from autocracy to democracy in the form of neoliberal reforms, and the implication that these reforms caused. Smith compares and contrast various aspects of both democratic and…

Economic Liberalism: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The 1980s and 1990s ushered in a wave of neoliberal reforms across Latin America. However, over time, there was great variation in the implementation and success of such economic and social programs regionally, according to a 2004 Huber and Solt…

Indicators of Economic Success

This week’s readings arise a highly debated topic in the political arena — is an authoritarian regime better for the economy, or a democratic one? There are fundamental factors of each form of government that can suggest economic success either…

Poverty in Latin America, always an issue!

Although Latin America has countries that are extremely resource rich, the level of poverty and inequality is staggering. Countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and Brazil who are rich but due to their policies and politicians, they have seen poverty….

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) as a model for international aid

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) as a model for international aid

One of the Latin American innovations touched upon by Smith and Sells in their chapter “State Capacity and Policy Performance” is “conditional cash transfer” or CCT. Smith and Sells credit CCTs with playing an important role in poverty alleviation in…

Democratic Transition

Pertaining to the topic of Democratic Consolidation, Smith and Sells put great emphasis on the importance of elections. In chapter 7, they described the electoral system as the “hallmark of democracy”. I agree with the authors in regard to this…

Delegative Democracy, A Failure of Consolidation

Guillermo O’Donnell in his publication of “Delegative Democracy,” takes an alternative viewpoint as to why certain democracies fail to consolidate. While in previous readings the emphasis has been on the way transitions from authoritarian regimes to democracies have been handled, in…

Normality and Delegative Democracy

The readings for this week pose a very interesting variation to all the cases we have seen from the aftermaths of the transition. Even if the case is, as we saw during the last couple of weeks – that there…