Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:06:29.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Taming the Tiger: Voting Rights and Political Instability in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Josep M. Colomer
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between certain institutional regulations of voting rights and elections, different levels of electoral participation, and the degree of political instability in several Latin American political experiences. A formal model specifies the hypotheses that sudden enlargements of the electorate may provoke high levels of political instability, especially under plurality and other restrictive electoral rules, while gradual enlargements of the electorate may prevent much electoral and political innovation and help stability. Empirical data illustrate these hypotheses. A historical survey identifies different patterns of political instability and stability in different countries and periods, which can be compared with the adoption of different voting rights regulations and electoral rules either encouraging or depressing turnout.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , Summer 2004 , pp. 29 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguila, Peralta, Alicia, Del. 1994. Callejones y mansiones. Espartos de opinión pública y formas de acción política en Lima: el funcionamiento de una democracia restringida (1895–1919). Master's thesis. Mexico City: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO).Google Scholar
Alonso, Paula. 1996. Voting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before 1912. in Posada-Carbó 1996. 181–200.Google Scholar
Annino, Antonio, ed. 1995. Historia de las elecciones en Iberoamérica, siglo XIX. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar
Annino, Antonio, ed. 1996. The Ballot, Land and Sovereignty: Cádiz and the Origins of Mexican Local Government, 1812–1820. in Posada-Carbó 1996. 61–86.Google Scholar
Ansaldi, Waldo. 1993. Un caso de nomenclatures equivocadas? Los partidos políticos después de la Ley Sáez-Peña, 1916–1930. In Argentina en la paz de dos guerras 1914–1945, ed. PucciarelliAnsaldi, Alfredo R., and José, Villarreal. Buenos Aires: Biblos.Google Scholar
Arosemena, Justo. 1878. Estudios constitucionales sobre los gobiernos de la América Latina. 2 vols. Paris: Librería Española y Americana de E. Denne.Google Scholar
Basadre, Jorge. 1980. Elecciones y centralismo en Perú. Apuntes para un esquema histórico. Lima: Universidad del Pacífico.Google Scholar
Becerra, Ricardo, Pedro, Salazar, and José, Woldenberg. 2000. La mecánica del cambiopolitico en México: elecciones, partidos y reformas. Mexico City: Cal y Arena.Google Scholar
Bethell, Leslie ed. 1993. Argentina Since Independence. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botana, Natalio. [1977] 1998. El orden conservador. La política argentina entre 1880 y 1916. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana.Google Scholar
Brandenburg, Frank. 1964. The Making of Modern Mexico. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Bushnell, David. 1993. The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation In Spite of Itself. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Campos Harriet, Fernando. 1984. El sufragio en Chile: 1810–1980. Revista Política 6 (Chile).Google Scholar
Cantón, Darío. 1973. Elecciones y partidos politicos en la Argentina. Historia, interpretación y balance. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI.Google Scholar
Cantón, Darío, José, L. Moreno, and Alberto, Ciria. 1990. Argentina. La democracia constitucional y su crisis. Buenos Aires: Paidós.Google Scholar
Chavarri Sidera, Pilar. 1988. Las elecciones de diputados a las cortes generates y extraordinarias (1810–1813). Madrid: Centra de Estudios Constitucionales.Google Scholar
Chiaramonte, José Carlos. 1995. Vieja y nueva representatión: los procesos electorates en Buenos Aires, 1810–1820. in Annino 1995. 19–64.Google Scholar
Chiaramonti, Gabriella. 1995. Andes o natión: la reforma electoral de 1896 en perú. in Annino 1995. 315–46.Google Scholar
Chiaramonti, Gabriella. 2000. Construir el centra, redefinir al ciudadano: restricción del sufragio y reforma electoral en el perú de finales del siglo Xtx. in Malamud 2000. 230–61.Google Scholar
Cibotti, Ema. 1995. Sufragio, prensa y opinión pública: las elecciones municipales de 1933 en Buenos Aires. in Annino 1995. 143–76.Google Scholar
Colomer, Josep M. 1998. México: democracia a medias. Claves 87: 41–49.Google Scholar
Colomer, Josep M. 2001. Political Institutions: Democracy and Social Choice. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cossío Villegas, Daniel, ed. 1976. Historia general de México. Mexico City: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Deas, Malcolm. 1996. The Role of the Church, the Army and the Police in Colombian Elections, c. 1850–1930. in Posada-Carbó 1996. 163–80.Google Scholar
Demélas-Bohy, Marie-Danielle. 1995. Modalidades y signification general de elecciones generates en los países andinos, 1813–1814. in Annino 1995. 291–314.Google Scholar
Demélas-Bohy, Marie-Danielle, and François-Xavier, Guerra. 1996. The Hispanic Revolutions: the Adoption of Modern Forms of Representation in Spain and America, 1808–1810. in Posada-Carbó 1996. 33–60.Google Scholar
Di Telia, Torcuato S. 1994. Política nacional y popular en México 1820–1847. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar
Emmerich, Gustavo Ernesto. 1985. Las elecciones en México, 1808–1911: ¿sufragio efectivo?¿no reelección? In Las elecciones en México. Evolución y perspectivas, ed. Pablo González, Casanova. Mexico City: Siglo XXI. 41–67.Google Scholar
González Casanova, Pablo. 1967. La democracia en México. Mexico City: Era.Google Scholar
Graham, Richard. 1990. Patronage and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Graham, Richard. 1995. Formando un gobierno central: las elecciones y el orden monárquico en el Brasil del siglo Xix. in Annino 1995. 347–80.Google Scholar
Guerra, François-Xavier. 1985. Mexique de l’Ancien Régime à la Révolution. Paris: L̂Harmattan.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
International Foundation for Election Systems (Ifes). Washington, Dc. <http://www.ifes.orgace>..>Google Scholar
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). 1997. Voter Turnout from 1945 to 1997: A Global Report on Political Participation. Stockholm: IDEA.Google Scholar
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). 2002. Voter Turnout Since 1945: a Global Report. Stockholm: IDEA.Google Scholar
Katz, Richard S. 1997. Democracy and Elections. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krauze, Enrique, ed. 1984. Daniel Cossío Villegas. El historiador liberal. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar
Leal, Víctor Nuñes. [1949] 1997. Coronelismo, enxada e voto. O município e o regime representativo no Brasil. São Paulo: Nova Frontera.Google Scholar
Luna, Félix. 1988. Fuerzas hegemónicas y partidos políticos. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana.Google Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott P. 1999. Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization: The Case of Brazil. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malamud, Carlos, ed. 2000. Legitimidad, representación y alternancia en España y América Latina: las reformas electorales (1880–1930). Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar
Meyer, Lorenzo. 1985. La revolución mexicana y sus elecciones presidenciales, 1911–1940. In Las elecciones en México. Evolución y perspectivas, ed. Pablo González, Casanova. Mexico City: Siglo XXI. 69–99.Google Scholar
Meyer, Michael C., and William, L. Sherman. 1979. The Course of Mexican History. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B. R. 1992. International Historical Statistics. New York: Stockton.Google Scholar
Müncke, Ulrich. 2001. Elections and Political Participation in Nineteenth-century Peru: the 1871–72 Presidential Campaign. Journal of Latin American Studies 33: 311–46.Google Scholar
Negretto, Gabriel, and José, A. Aguilar. 2000. Rethinking the Legacy of the Liberal State in Latin America. Journal of Latin American Studies 32: 361–97.Google Scholar
Nohlen, Dieter. 1993. Enciclopedia electoral latinoamericana y del Caribe. San José, Costa Rica: Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos.Google Scholar
Ochoa, Enrique C. 1987. The Rapid Expansion of Voter Participation in Latin America: Presidential Elections, 1845–1986. In Statistical Abstract of Latin America, ed. James, W. Wilkie and David, Lorey. Los Angeles: University of California Latin American Center Publications.Google Scholar
Payne, J. Mark, Daniel Zovatto, G., Fernando, Carrillo Flórez, and Andrés Allamand, Zavala. 2002. Democracies in Development: Politics and Reform in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Peloso, Vincent C. 1996. Liberals, Electoral Reform, and the Popular Vote in Midnineteenth-century Peru. In Liberals, Politics, and Power: State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, ed. Peloso, and Barbara, A. Tenenbaum. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 186–211.Google Scholar
El pensamiento constitucional hispanoamericano hasta 1830 . Compilación de constituciones nacionales y proyectos constitucionales. [1831] 1961. Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia.Google Scholar
Perry, Laurens Ballard. 1979. Juárez and Díaz: Machine Politics in Mexico. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Political Database of the Americas. Washington, DC: Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University, <http://www.georgetown.edupdba>..>Google Scholar
Porto, Walter Costa. 1989. O voto no Brasil. Da colônia à 5a República. Brasilia: Senado Federal.Google Scholar
Posada-Carbó, Eduardo. 1996. Elections Before Democracy: The History of Elections in Europe and Latin America. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Posada-Carbó, Eduardo. 1997. Limits of Power: Elections under the Conservative Hegemony in Colombia, 1886–1930. Hispanic American Historical Review 77, 2: 245–79.Google Scholar
Posada-Carbó, Eduardo. 2000. Fraude al sufragio: la reforma electoral en Colombia, 1830–1930. in Malamud 2000. 208–29.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Mike, Alvarez, José, Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando, Limogi. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Material Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roett, Riordan. 1992. Brazil: Politics in a Patrimonial Society. Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Rokkan, Stein. 1970. Citizens, Elections, Parties: Approaches to the Comparative Study of the Processes of Development. New York: David McKay.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard et al., eds. 2000. International Encyclopedia of Elections. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press/Palgrave.Google Scholar
Sabato, Hilda. 1995. Elecciones y prácticas electorales en Buenos Aires, 1860–1880. ¿Sufragio universal sin ciudadanía política? in Annino 1995. 107–42.Google Scholar
Scott, Robert E. 1964. Mexican Government in Transition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Ternavasio, Marcela. 1995. Nuevo régimen representativo y expansión de la frontera política. Las elecciones en el estado de Buenos Aires: 1820–1840. in Annino 1995. 65–106.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, J. Samuel. 1985. Democratización vía reforma: la expansion del sufragio en Chile. Buenos Aires: IDES.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, J. Samuel. 1996. Building Aspects of Democracy before Democracy: Electoral Practices in Nineteenth-century Chile. in Posada-Carbó 1996. 223–57.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, J. Samuel. 2000. La ley electoral de 1890 y la democratización del régimen político chileno. in Malamud 2000. 130–61.Google Scholar
Vanhanen, Tatu. 1975. Political and Social Structures. Part 1: American Countries, 1850–1973. Tampere, Finland: University of Tampere.Google Scholar
Warren, Richard. 1996. Elections and Popular Political Participation in Mexico, 1808–1836, In Liberals, Politics, and Power. State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, ed. Peloso, and Barbara, A. Tenenbaum. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 30–46.Google Scholar
Wieseborn, Marianne L. 1995. Elecciones en el Brasil 1880–1900: Bom Jardim y Afogados da Ingazeira (Pernambuco). Relación del poder local con el poder estatal. in Annino 1995. 409–52.Google Scholar