Building Democracy ... Which Democracy? Ideology and Models of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America

Politics in Latin America continued to be about democracy after the democratic transitions in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. An old concern - securing the minimal standard of democracy that had served as the goal of democratic transitions - remained relevant. But a new concern - the attainment of more than a minimal democracy - transformed politics about democracy. Actors who supported and opposed neoliberalism - the key axis of ideological conflict - advocated and resisted political changes in the name of different models of democracy. And the conflict over which model of democracy would prevail shaped Latin America's post-transition trajectories, determining how democracy developed and, in turn, whether democracy endured.