The indigenous people where the most discriminated since the beginning displaced from their lands, taken away their rights as Rigoberta Menchu declared they were forced to move away into the mountains where they felt safe, families were separated and the role of the women took an important change. Women were involved in the revolutionary arms in order to defend their families from militars, they became active in the revolution. The autocracy became so suffocating that people in the city not only indigenous started to become active too in order to restore the Democracy, they saw the consequences of a military regime and wanted to change them. (Torres Rivas E., 1984)
In other different case according to Soto in which the civil society became involved in the transitions to democracy is Chile. They had experimented the democracy before de Coups d’état in 1973, in the formation of the State, they had the presidential succession which was carried out through periodic elections. The country had only a brief period of instability in the second half of the 1920s, but by 1932 it had returned to democracy. In the early years of the 20th century he also saw the dramatic increase in the political participation of the middle class, of the workers, of the rural people and, from 1949, of the women as well.
The leading role in contrast in Guatemala was obtained by the elites who participated in the processes that led to democracy and remained active during the transition period. Claudio Fuentes Saavedra describes that:(…) The 1990-2010 political cycle is characterized precisely by the absence of citizenship. The main political decisions were taken in the corridors of the Executive and Legislative Branches, and spaces for the involvement of the people were not created. The legislators delegated power to a relatively small group of political actors, who were defining the contours of this reform. High party discipline prevailed, a proactive role of the Executive and the negotiations of a highly specialized political elite. (2012, p.17)
127 our experts are availableright now
The dictatorship in Chile lasted 17 years and throughout this time the political and social system was truly autoritaire, evolving in a regime that violated constantly the human rights, the enforced disappearances, torture and hundred of deaths that never were justified by the government.
In 1980 the dictatorship adopted a new Constitution specifying that a plebiscite would be held in 1988 to consult citizens on whether the regime should continue until 1997. This marked a crucial moment in the restoration of democracy. Opposition to the dictatorship decided to participate in the plebiscite and called on Chileans to mobilize and vote NO on the continuation of Augusto Pinochet in power. The results are well known: won the NO and Pinochet simply had no choice but to leave power a year later.
In order the prevent another authoritarian regime the civil society had to come to agreements with the militars in what was the better way to transitions. They reformulated the constitutions in order to change the part that restrict that the sovereignty fall to the people, that was a necessary change to restart Democracy.
It is necessary to clarify a point: the rules may or not be pleasure to everybody but an important fact, that in the Chile case, their foundations of democracy still rest in the Constitution of Pinochet.
In conclusion we can see different ways to approach democracy in Latin America, every country has its history and their internal flights to constitute a democratic regime. The purpose of this essay was to show different ways to achieve democracies, the first is a clear example of the civil society getting involved and the second was a change by the system itself, they realize that democracy gave more benefits to succeed than the previous autocracy.
From a different perspective we could see that the civil society in Chile the movement was more passive and in Guatemala was a clear activeness because of the harms made against them were more outraged for them. Pinochet widely understood that begging for the society pardon was a more strategic way to get rid of guilties and any powerful social movement.
Information Sources
- Alvaro Soto, « Sociedad Civil versus Elites. Las transiciones a la democracia en España y Chile », Les Cahiers de Framespa [En ligne], 27 | 2018, mis en ligne le 01 juin 2018, consulté le 21 février 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/framespa/4706
- Gross, B. (1954). Politics, Economics, and Welfare. By Robert A. Dahl and Charles E. Lindblom. (New York: Harper & Bros. 1953. Pp. 526.). American Political Science Review, 48(2), 558-560. doi:10.2307/1951220
- García Jurado, Roberto, La teoría democrática de Huntington. Política y Cultura [en linea] 2003, (primavera) : [Fecha de consulta: 19 de febrero de 2019] Disponible en: ISSN 0188-7742
- Torres Rivas, E. (1984). Problemas De La Contrarevolucion Y La Democracia en Guatemala. Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos, 13(38), 127–142. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=30h&AN=46578811&site=ehost-live
- Diez textos básicos de ciencia política / Textos de : Gabriel A. Almond ; Robert A. Dhal… [et al.] ; Edición a cargo de Albert Batlle. Barcelona Ariel 2001
