Latin American Democracy and You

After having read the articles for week seven regarding the emergence of democracy in Latin America, I can say with some certainty that I have not thought of the quality of democracy in terms of its trajectory. Being an American, I have been lucky enough to live in the most stable democratic system in history. That said, I have been very much unaware that democracy is not something that is assured, and is not some indestructible system once it takes root. The emergence of democracy and democratic values does not guarantee the continuance of democracy and its ideals. In the context of the current American political situation, learning about how several nations in Latin America have developed into democracies, only to regress to outdated authoritarian regime has shed light on possible pitfalls our nation may find itself in. The article by Luna was interesting to me because I have never thought about accountability to power in terms of vertical and horizontal (vertical accountability being the power of the people to check power, and horizontal being the other parts of the government serving as checks) The ability for both the government itself and the citizenry to actively serve as a check on power is incredibly important. In my biased opinion, the United States’ system of checks and balances and constitutionally mandated separated branches imparts the strongest horizontal accountability. Latin American governments could take bits and pieces of this model to help protect themselves against the rise of authoritarians by giving power to legislatures and judiciaries. In terms of vertical accountability, or the ability of the people to act as a check on power, the emphasis clearly must be that all people should be able to vote. Most countries in Latin America have universal suffrage, which would lead to the assumption that vertical accountability might be powerful, but that would not always ring true. The lack of horizontal accountability might embolden those seeking to consolidate power by limiting or otherwise handicapping the ability of the people to meaningfully affect those in power. Sadly, as my comparisons to the United States continue, I believe that we too are guilty of trying to marginalize and otherwise weaken the will of the people. After all, “Vox Populi Vox Dei”. The United States, in my opinion, should reform of otherwise abandon the Electoral College so that there is more congruence between popular support and who actually wins elections. The system does little other than act as an unused security blanket that should prevent unqualified and otherwise incompetent people from achieving office. Now that we have now seen two modern instances of the popular will being ignored, it would be in our interest to dictate that the electors vote for she who wins the popular vote, while reserving their power to overturn the will of the people in dire circumstances. Also more generally, I think a multi-party system akin to those in Latin America and Europe would do better to serve the United States and more fully represent the electorate. My rant aside, the lessons learned from this weeks readings regarding the emergence and regression of Latin American democracy have been truly enlightening and hold true in other democracies, such as our own, as well.