Democracies and populism in South America: Another perspective. One Response to "Democracy in Latin America: between populism and deliberative democracy" by Osvaldo Guariglia

In the context of discussions on political processes in Latin America, this paper presents a critical analysis about the article "Democracy in Latin America: between populism and deliberative democracy" by O. Guariglia. Reading the work allows us to show the limitations of argumentation. On the one hand because it no confronts a normative position of deliberative democracy against other normative conception would defend populism (in the work of E. Laclau). Furthermore, because the empirical evidence on populism actually existing are few and imprecise. These limits however contribute to the debate because it revived the discussion about what democracy? And open several questions such as: What are normative concepts of democracy in the region? What have been the implications of political processes in Latin America under governments "populist" in the XXI century? Are there real possibilities of democratizing social orders that are crossed by deep inequalities as Latin American? The answers to these questions can be made from different perspectives.