En el marco de una preocupación cada vez mayor por analizar la calidad de las nuevas democracias, este artículo se ocupa de examinar el caso de Paraguay. Se trata de una democracia poco atendida en la literatura especializada aunque su interés está creciendo como consecuencia de la derrota electoral del Partido Colorado (en el poder desde 1947) en las presidenciales de abril de 2008. Para llevar a cabo este trabajo, se parte de una reflexión teórica y metodológica en torno a la noción y la medición empírica de la calidad democrática. Al realizar el análisis de la democracia paraguaya se atiende a cinco dimensiones fundamentales: derechos políticos y libertades civiles, Estado de Derecho, rendición de cuentas, responsiveness y participación. La conclusión general es que es una democracia de baja calidad, distanciada del promedio latinoamericano. Para explicar este bajo nivel de calidad democrática se presta atención a tres tipos de explicaciones, que están relacionadas: unas referentes a la estructura socioeconómica del país, otras a las características de sus instituciones políticas (sobre todo, la relevancia del clientelismo) y, finalmente, otras relativas a los intereses y estrategias de los partidos políticos.
RESUMENEl trabajo se centra en la confianza de los ciudadanos en los organismos electorales latinoamericanos analizando tanto sus causas como su impacto sobre la calidad de la democracia. En primer lugar, se traza un mapa de los variados niveles de confianza en los organismos electorales utilizando datos de opinión pública (LAPOP). En segundo lugar, mediante un análisis booleano se explora el efecto combinado de variables relacionadas con el diseño institucional, el entorno político y la cultura política sobre la confianza en los organismos electorales. En tercer lugar, se estudia el impacto de la confianza en los organismos electorales sobre la calidad de la democracia. Para ello se recurre, entre otras técnicas, a un análisis de regresión lineal.
Palabras clave:Organismos electorales, confianza, calidad de la democracia, América Latina.
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the confidence of citizens in Latin American Electoral Bodies by analyzing both its causes and its impact on the quality of democracy. First, a map of the varying levels of trust in Electoral Bodies is drawn using public opinion data (LAPOP
Completion of the third wave of democratization in Latin America has led to a significant renewal of the comparative political agenda. Matters related to democratic transition and consolidation are no longer regarded with such interest; instead, attention is focused more on the characteristics and performance of the new democracies. One of these matters of interest is that of accountability institutions and mechanisms, bearing in mind their importance for a democracy's quality. It is widely recognized that poor performance of control mechanisms of political power leads to serious problems for a democracy, such as corruption or arbitrariness in public decisions.In spite of the importance this issue has attained, there is a lack of comparative large n studies on the characteristics and the performance of the accountability mechanisms established in the Latin American democracies. This study aims to make a contribution in this respect. In particular, it seeks to answer three basic questions. (1) How can the quality of democratic accountability be measured and evaluated? (2) Are there clear differences among the Latin American democracies in regard to the quality of democratic accountability? And (3), if there are differences in the quality levels, what reasons can explain them?In order to answer these questions, the work has been structured into four sections. The first presents the concept of accountability, its principal types and its importance. In the second section, an operationalization of the notion of quality of accountability is considered and, on this basis, a Acknowledgments: I am grateful for the support offered by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España (project CSO2011-24344), Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) and three colleagues: Joan Balcells, Albert Padró-Solanet and Leticia M. Ruiz. I also thank the three CJPS reviewers for their useful comments. None is responsible for remaining errors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.