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2)Even the institutional reforms being contemporarily financed by multilateral organization in the region
seem to be oblivious to the demand of distributing political power and furthering democratization, giving
preference to reforms which would compliment economic reforms of the past, such as increasing protection
of private property and (Page 5) brought prosperity and stability to the region. However, the regional
outlook is not as positive as expected. Not only economic conditions deteriorated as a result of new
monetary and financial crises, but also evaluations of the protection of civil rights in the region have been
losing ground. Both the political and economic models of transition seem to be under a legitimacy crisis in
Latin America. Possible causes for this situation are (i) the perpetuation of institutions from the
authoritarian regimes resulting from the model of political transition and (ii) increases in
inequality which accompanied economic reforms. In this paper I will focus on the first part, but
I will also argue that the legitimacy crisis of the economic reforms is deeply correlated with the
legitimacy crisis of the political system, as a result of the democratic deficit of the economic
reforms and the unfairness of such reforms. To illustrate my argument in relation to the
legitimacy crisis of political transitions, I averaged the Civil Liberties Index measured by
Freedom House for 22 Latin American countries for 3 decades, from 1972 to 2001.What is3) interesting to
notice is that after the transitions of the 1980s, in which most Latin American
countries returned to some form of electoral democracy, the overall protection of civil rights did
not improve significantly. In 1972, while many Latin American countries were already military
dictatorships, the average Civil Liberties protection index was 3.5. In 2001, after 30 years, the
index was 3.2. 4)
It must be mentioned that the indexes improved considerably after the transition.
enforceability of contracts. See World Bank, L EGAL AND JUDICIAL REFORM : OBSERVATIONS , EXPERIENCES
, AND A PPROACH OF THE LEGAL VICE –PRESIDENT (World Bank, 2002). 3
Unfortunately Freedom House does not have number prior to 1972. It would be interesting to evaluate if the
transition to democracy after the military dictatorships of the Cold War period improved the protection of civil
liberties in relation to the previous period.
Database in file with the author.
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However, they started to deteriorate during the nineties, accompanying the economic crises
which penalized the region, mainly towards the end of the decade. 5).
The legitimacy crisis of the economic transition is even more explicit. During the 1980‘s
and 1990‘s, the percentage of the population living under US$ 1 dollar per day, controlled by
purchasing power, was maintained stable, around 11% of the total population.6). However, the
total number increased from 63.7 million to 78.2 million. 7). The percentage of the population
living under US$ 2 per day was also stable around 25% of the population. In the same period,
countries in the East Asia and the Pacific reduced their poverty levels from 58% percent of the
population living on less than US$ 1 per day to 15%. To a certain extent, one of the reasons why
Latin America was not able to reduce its poverty levels after democratization and economic
liberalization was the meager economic performance, particularly in the second half of last
decade. From 1995 to 2001, the Latin American region had the slowest growth rate among
developing regions of the world, with an average slightly lower than Sub-Saharan Africa.8).
However, the most determinant factor in the maintenance of poverty, which I claim is
also related to political legitimacy, is economic inequality. During the 1970‘s, while the region
was dominated by military dictatorships, income inequality increased in the region from 48.4 to
50.8 in the GINI Index. This was not unexpected, considering that authoritarian regimes were
supported by economic elites. However, during the 1980‘s, when almost all dictatorships were
Nonetheless, the improvement in political stability in the region was remarkable. The number of coups
d‘état in the region decreased in the 1990‘s to levels similar to those in the beginning of the 18Th century,
when most Latin American countries were submitted to colonial powers. From 1840 to 1980, there were
more than 15 coups per decade in the region. In 1980 there were lest than
5) See David Scott Palmer, The Military in Latin America, in LATIN AMERICA : PERSPECTIVES ON
AREGION (Jack W. Hopkins, Ed., Holmes & Meier, 1999).