Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Political Science Dissertations Department of Political Science 5-11-2015 Democratic Crises in Latin America from 1990-2012: Explaining the Variation in Responses From Regional Intergovernmental Organizations Betsy Montgomery-Smith Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/political_science_diss Recommended Citation Montgomery-Smith, Betsy, "Democratic Crises in Latin America from 1990-2012: Explaining the Variation in Responses From Regional Intergovernmental Organizations." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2015. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/political_science_diss/36 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Political Science at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. DEMOCRATIC CRISES IN LATIN AMERICA FROM 1990-2012: EXPLAINING THE VARIATION IN RESPONSES FROM REGIONAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS by BETSY MONTGOMERY-SMITH Under the Direction of Jennifer McCoy, PhD ABSTRACT Despite the existence in Latin America of a highly developed norm to collectively promote and defend democracy, there is variation in its application during democratic crises in the region. What explains the variation in responses to democratic crises? This dissertation makes three major arguments. The