This paper focused on the democratic problems faced by Latin American nations. As a part of the third wave of democratic experiments, those in the Latin American nations created few successes. It was not only the lack of successful democracies, and it was the denigration of government and life in countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Drug cartels and their violence and deaths forced many immigrants to leave their homeland and travel to America. At the same time, the trip was, in many ways, as tricky as immigrants from centuries ago faced. Once they arrived in the U.S., immigrants found that life was not what they had expected. The cultural shock many faced in the prejudice, discrimination, and the lack of social justice were a few of their problems. In ways, the criminal justice system was and is still unprepared to deal with the cultural differences newcomers bring to America. The issue of this paper brings the issue from democracy lost to democracy in America for newcomers. The question occurs, can we do better than we have thus far.

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Since the beginning of the U.S. Constitution, state governments have possessed great control over the power of local governments. In 1868, State Representative Robert Dillon of Iowa voiced a theory of strong control of state lawmakers over the state's municipalities. Dillon's Theory was thought to be the norm across the states until the Progressive Era with the passage of Home Rule Charter and Optional Plan Laws. While the great reforms of local government were to have changed, the power relationship, the real fact is that little but structure has altered. With states unwilling to truly alter this power structure, general assemblies have left municipalities in financial distress with an inability to address their local needs effectively.

This edition of COMMONWEALTH includes book reviews of Choosing State Supreme Court Justices: Merit Selection and the Consequences of Institutional Reform, by Greg Goelzhauser; A Nice Place to Visit: Tourism and Urban Revitalization in the Postwar Rustbelt, by Aaron Cowan; and Undocumented Fears: Immigration and the Politics of Divide and Conquer in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, by Jamie Longazel.