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Reflections on Regime Change and Democracy in Bahia, Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Julián Durazo Herrmann
Julián Durazo Herrmann*
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal
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Abstract

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A significant shortcoming in Latin American transitions to democracy has been the failure of some subnational units to follow suit, leading to the emergence of authoritarian enclaves. Recently, however, some of these nondemocratic regimes have moved toward a political opening. In this respect, the state of Bahia in Northeastern Brazil is intriguing. Antônio Carlos Magalhães and his associates, known as carlistas, were in office between 1970 and 2006, when Jaques Wagner, from the Worker's Party (PT), won the gubernatorial election. While the ascent of the PT was saluted as spearheading Bahia's democratization, numerous observers have signaled important elements of continuity, including personalism, clientelism, and top-down decision making. What changed and what didn't is thus a pertinent question. To answer it, I use Robert Dahl's procedural definition of democracy (completed and updated by more recent scholarship) as the guiding criterion to compare carlista and PT rule in Bahia. I conclude with a broad reflection on subnational democratization in Latin America.

Resumo

Resumo

Um problema importante das transições latinoamericanas à democracia é que algumas unidades subnacionais não seguiram a tendência federal, criando assim enclaves autoritários. Recentemente, porém, alguns desses regimes autoritários têm evoluido para uma abertura política. Nesse sentido, o caso do estado da Bahia, no Nordeste brasileiro, é muito interessante. Antônio Carlos Magalhães e seus seguidores, chamados de carlistas, governaram a Bahia entre 1970 e 2006, quando Jaques Wagner, do Partido dos Trabalhadores, ganhou a eleição para governador. Se a chegada do partido ao poder foi descrita como um passo fundamental da democratização baiana, numerosos observadores têm sinalado elementos importantes de continuidade, incluindo personalismo, clientelismo e tomada vertical de decisões. Quê é que mudou ou não na política baiana é assim uma pergunta intrigante. Para respondê-la utilizo a definição procedimental de democracia de Robert Dahl (completada e atualizada por autores mais recentes) para comparar os governos carlista e petista na Bahia. Na conclusão faço também uma reflexão mais ampla dos processos de democratização subnacional em América Latina.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , 2014 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

The Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture generously funded this project. I am grateful to François Trotignon and Yan Raymond-Lalande for their valuable research assistance; to Celina Souza, Paulo Fábio Dantas Neto, and the three anonymous reviewers for their extensive comments and suggestions on previous versions of this paper; and to my numerous friends in Bahia for their invaluable help in this project.

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