Archive Report
Archive Report
Gains for Democracy in Latin America
Two Political Currents have been moving swiftly, in different directions, in different parts of the non-Communist world. One has carried half a dozen newly independent nations of Asia and Africa away from the practice of democracy and into the custody of presumably benevolent dictators. The other, operating in the older nations of Latin America, has swept one military dictator after another into exile and restored democratic rights and processes long in suspense.
Widespread illiteracy, lack of public experience with democratic practices, leadership shortcomings, and other factors have contributed to the faltering of free government in the Asian and African countries where military chieftains have stepped in to exercise political control. In Latin America, on the contrary, peoples subject for decades ...