The Paradoxes of Contemporary Democracy: Formal, Participatory, and Social Dimensions

Current strides toward formal democracy outside the advanced industrial countries appear to be combined with movements away from participatory democracy and equality. We analyze this apparent paradox, focusing on Latin America. Our theoretical framework is based on our earlier comparative historical analysis of the relationship between capitalist development and democracy and on the literature on political participation and social democracy in advanced industrial democracies. Three clusters of power—the balance of class power, structure of the state and state-society relations, and international power structures—and their interaction consistently explain progress toward limited formal democracy and mounting obstacles to greater participation and socioeconomic equality.