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Strong Societies, Weak Parties: Regime Change in Cuba and Venezuela in the 1950s and Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Javier Corrales
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Abstract

The literature on the origins of democratic institutions is split between bottom-up and top-down approaches. The former emphasize societal factors that press for democracy; the latter, rules and institutions that shape elites' incentives. Can these approaches be reconciled? This article proposes competitive political parties, more so than degrees of modernization and associationalism, as the link between the two. Competitive political parties enhance society's bargaining power with the state and show dominant elites that liberalization is in their best interest; the parties are thus effective conduits of democracy. In the context of party deficit, the prospects for democratization or redemocratization are slim. This is illustrated by comparing Cuba and Venezuela in the 1950s and 1990s.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , Summer 2001 , pp. 81 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2001

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