Interest in defense issues among Latin American politicians has faded with the advent of widespread democratization in the region

Since the end of the Cold War, an elected civilian leader in Latin America is more likely to be displaced from office prior to the end of his constitutional term by mass mobilization than by a military coup. As Arturo Valenzuela has observed, thirteen of the fifteen nonconstitutional transfers of power in the region between 1990 and 2004 have been the result of civilian coups rather than military actions.1 This phenomenon has occurred in Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador, while attempts in Peru and Venezuela have failed. Civilian coups are not confined only to Latin America; they have occurred in the Philippines, where "people power" displaced both dictators and elected presidents; in Ukraine with the "Orange" Revolution; and in Georgia with the "Rose" Revolution. In each case, a civilian elected leader was ejected from power by the mass action of civilian, rather than military, sectors of society.This article focuses on military responses (or the lack thereof) to mass protests against elected governments during moments of constitutional crisis in democratic states. These crises occur when opposition forces decide that merely changing government policy is not enough; that what is required is a change in government itself. This may involve violent or nonviolent mechanisms, but the universe of cases examined here is delimited by the opposition's goals-changing governments outside the normal democratic processes established by the constitution rather than altering government policy. The cases draw on the Latin American experience with democratization both because the third wave of democracy struck the region earlier than most and because states in the region have had a long experience with military intervention in politics.At first glance what appears to have changed about contemporary politics in Latin America is the unusual lack of military intervention in moments of social contestation that might have produced a coup d'état in previous eras. Samuel Huntington once argued that in praetorian societies, students riot, workers strike, and militaries coup.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. AbstractsChile's Transformed Party System and the Future of Democratic Stability Chile today is experiencing a new sociopolitical compromise no less significant than the so-called "compromise state" of the 1930s and 1940s. A central feature of the new arrangement has been the performance of Chile's party system. This role should be understood in terms of how it reflects, and helps to mitigate or aggravate, the tension between capital accumulation and the struggles over sociopolitical inclusion and distribution. Party System Deinstitutionalization: The 1997-98 Colombian Elections in Historical PerspectiveTaking the 1997-98 electoral season as its case study, this article seeks to determine whether Colombia's party system is undergoing deinstitutionalization. The resilience of the Liberal Party and the lack of an organized alternative to the traditional parties may mean that Colombia is in the process of party system transformation. Democratization and Changes in the Pattern of Association in Brazil The results of a survey of 311 members of voluntary associations in SaoPaulo and Belo Horizonte suggest that members of voluntary associations incorporate the values introduced by social movements during the democratization process: they claim organizational autonomy from the state, and they defend more participatory forms of decisionmaking. These findings are important for the debate between democratic consolidation and delegative democracy. Democratization might benefit from the incorporation of these actors into new participatory designs. Crafting Civilian Control in Emerging Democracies: Argentina and VenezuelaDemocratic transitions create an opportunity for elected officials to maximize their leverage over the armed forces and create institutions that permanently shift power away from the military. This article develops a theoretical argument about how civilian control, is established. Venezuela institutionalized weak civilian control in the wake of its 1958 democratic transition, allowing the regime to survive the 1992 coup attempts. Argentina moved close to strong civilian control by 1995, although such control is exercised through questionable institutional channels. Abstracts Chile's Transformed Party System and the Future of Democratic StabilityChile today is experiencing a new sociopolitical compromise no less significant than the so-called "compromise state" of the 1930s and 1940s. A central feature of the new arrangement has been the performance of Chile's party system. This role should be und...

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