Review article
The Transformation of Guatemala’s Political System – From a Banana Republic to the Most Substandard Democracy in Latin America
Lidija Kos-Stanišić
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author provides an outline of Guatemala’s democratization during the Third Wave, and analyses turnovers of governments, regimes and systems. She argues that the beginning of the change of Guatemala’s political system was preceded by a stage of pre-autocratic experiences with democracy (1944-1954), and that the inability to end the long-lasting civil war was one of the key reasons for the beginning of the end of the authoritarian system (1954-1985). What followed was a prolonged transition (1985-1999) that proceeded in four stages and was supervised by the army which, in this way, assumed the role of a strong antidemocratic veto player. In the stage of consolidation (2000-2012) a defective democracy has been stabilized, in which the civilian democratic regime is not only under the patronage of the army, but is also threatened by criminal organizations. The author concludes that during the last hundred years or so the political situation in Guatemala has not improved significantly, since it has turned from a banana republic into a defective and the most substandard democracy in Latin America.
Keywords
Guatemala; democracy; democracies in Latin America; transition; political system
Hrčak ID:
99818
URI
Publication date:
5.3.2013.
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