Political Behavior and Political Parties
The author attempts to answer why people in Latin America would accept authoritarian regimes during times of difficulty. He explains that from a Western stand point, democracy is broadly seen as the only legitimate form of governance based on the…
Two Fun Facts about Social Class
This week, through Smith and Sell’s book, I have a deeper understanding about political culture, and the correlation between political culture and democracy. Political culture refers to the fundamental beliefs and attitudes within the society. More…
Power Consolidation in Venezuela and Peru: Different Technique with Different Outcomes
The techniques that Hugo Chavez and Alberto Fujimori took in their consolidation of power were quite different. Chavez had the Legislative branch work for him and slowly changed the constitution to consolidate his power and make it harder for…
Political Parties and Democracy: Mexico
There is a continued dissatisfaction with political parties in many countries around the world. This is not only due to the opposition parties, or followers of them, but by citizens that dont fully relate to any party. Parties, as people…
Political Party Oppression in Venezuela
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, took a movement for democratic reform away from the strong political parties into an authoritarian regime giving him power at the expense of all other government, business, and social actor. He was able to create an…
“Democracy” is Just a Word
Fundamentally, support for democracy should be extremely widespread, give or take a dictator or two. However, people tend to support democracy without ever really knowing what it means. Or worse yet, they don’t support democracy because their experience with it…
Democracy in Peru and Venezuela
The readings concentrated on the political developments in Latin American countries, which are considered to be the most non-democratic states. The long-lasting authoritarian regimes of Alberto Fujimori and Hugo Chavez, who could not conduct their policies in a spirit of…
Political Behavior and Political Parties
In 2005 Hugo Chávez began his continuous power grabbing up until the publication of this article in 2007. During his presidency, Venezuela had a weak checks and balances system that allowed Chávez to gradually gain control of more aspects of…
Political Culture and Democracy in Latin America
In the chapter on ‘The People’s Verdict,” the authors discuss the importance of the political culture with respect to democracy. In many cases in Latin America, the culture is not adequate for democracies to thrive. This includes social class, geographic…
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