Our Democracy in Latin America (2011) Contents Authorities ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Project Team ................................................................................................................................. 4 Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowlegments .......................................................................................................................... 7 Foreword ........................................................................................................................................ 9 José Miguel Insulza, Secretary-General of the Organization of American States ......... 9 Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator ....................................................................................... 10 Heraldo Muñoz, UN Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean ........................................................................................ 11 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 12 Chapter 1: OUR STARTING POINT ....................................................................................... 15 Inequality and power .............................................................................................................. 15 Citizens‘ democracy ............................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: SPREADING CITIZENSHIP AND THE WELFARE SOCIETY ....................... 20 Controversies about democracy .......................................................................................... 20 Democracy of citizenship and welfare ................................................................................ 22 The quality of a democracy .................................................................................................. 27 The purposes of society and the purposes of democracy ............................................... 29 The historical meaning of democracies .......................................................................... 29 Citizen well-being ............................................................................................................... 31 The links between well-being, legitimacy, and democratic sustainability .................. 32 The welfare society ............................................................................................................ 33 Chapter 3: TALLYING UP THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILINGS OF LATIN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ...................................................................................................... 35 After the transition: a new phase in the path to democracy ............................................ 35 Individual democracies in the world system .................................................................. 39 Citizenship in Latin America: current status and trends ................................................... 39 Political Citizenship ............................................................................................................ 40 Access to public office ....................................................................................................... 40 Government decision-making........................................................................................... 48 Design of the constitutional framework ........................................................................... 58 Beyond political citizenship ................................................................................................... 62 Civil citizenship ................................................................................................................... 63 Social citizenship ................................................................................................................ 74 Chapter 4: THE DEFICITS IN LATIN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY .................................... 84 Crises of representation ........................................................................................................ 84 Democracy and representation ........................................................................................ 86 What options are the candidates offering? .................................................................... 93 Democratizing economic debate ..................................................................................... 97 Political and fiscal cycles ................................................................................................ 102 Funding election campaigns: money and politics ....................................................... 104 Politics and the media: access to information and freedom of speech ................... 108 More participation for better representation ................................................................. 112 Truncated republics: deficits in organizing republics ...................................................... 117 Organizing republics democratically ............................................................................. 117 Balance among the State‘s formal branches ............................................................... 121 Mechanisms for control and accountability .................................................................. 124 A new State for a new democracy ..................................................................................... 129 Power, the State, and democracy in Latin America .................................................... 129 State structure, function, and capacity .......................................................................... 134 Without the State, democracy of citizenship is illusory .............................................. 139 Chapter 5: THREE TOP-PRIORITY PUBLIC POLICIES: A NEW FISCAL APPROACH, SOCIAL INTEGRATION, AND PUBLIC SECURITY .......................................................... 143 A new fiscal approach ......................................................................................................... 143 Democracy, the State, and taxation .............................................................................. 143 Latin America, a region with low fiscal and taxation capacity ................................... 144 The challenge of direct taxation ..................................................................................... 146 Fiscal capacity, tax evasion, and tax morality ............................................................. 149 Social integration .................................................................................................................. 154 A minimum standard for social citizenship is a prerequisite for democracy ........... 154 The State and mechanisms for social integration ....................................................... 155 Public security ....................................................................................................................... 164 State and public security: how to face citizen insecurity effectively in a democracy ............................................................................................................................................. 164 The relationship between citizen insecurity and democracy ..................................... 168 The economic costs of citizen insecurity ...................................................................... 169 Public security: which way to go? .................................................................................. 170 The fight against drug trafficking and organized crime .............................................. 173 Epilogue ..................................................................................................................................... 177 Bibliography............................................................................................................................... 179 Collaborators who have participated through academic contributions. .......................... 187 Participants in seminars, meetings and interviews ............................................................. 194 3 Authorities United Nations Organization of Development Programme (UNDP) American States (OAS) Helen Clark José Miguel Insulza Administrator Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan Albert R. Ramdin Associate Administrator Assistant Secretary-General Heraldo Muñoz UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Project Team Project Directors Dante Caputo – OAS José Antonio Ocampo – UNDP Political Coordinators José Octavio Bordón – OAS Álvaro Pinto – UNDP Institutional Coordinator Juan Pablo Corlazzoli – UNDP Project Managers Pablo García-Arabéhéty – OAS Gerardo Noto – UNDP OAS Team UNDP Team Alejandro Bellotti Ana María Luey Rafael D' Armas Carolina Moreno Mariana Lachman Inés Pousadela Alejandro Quijada Juliana Vallejo Gaspar Travaglini 4 Executive Summary Latin American democracies face three challenges to improve their democratic exercise of power: (1) creating new forms of political participation to counter a crisis in representation; (2) reinforcing the structure of the State as a republic with independent branches