The State of Democracy in the Andes: Introduction to a thematic issue of Revista de Ciencia Política

Abstract

This overview finds evidence for concern about the ability of thegovernments in Colombia and Venezuela to hold free and fair electionsand a trend toward the concentration of executive power in mostcountries in the sub-region. The separation of powers has been mostsharply eroded in Venezuela; but Bolivia and Ecuador are moving in asimilar direction. Colombia has a robust constitutional order, includinga remarkably independent judiciary which has resisted the concentrationof executive power by refusing to let the president stand for a thirdterm. At the same time, most Andean countries are experimenting with newmechanisms of participation. There are sharp contrasts between the modelof participation in Bolivia and Venezuela, two countries often lumpedtogether by observers; and, despite ideological differences, strikingsimilarities in the presidential styles of Presidents Uribe and Chavez.Among Andean nations, only Chile is not undergoing a revolution inparticipation. Finally, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador have re-writtentheir constitutions in an attempt to encourage the exercise ofconstituent power. These cases exhibit variation in terms of the degreeto which deliberative, pluralistic, lawful, and constitutionalprocedures were used.