2001/01/01 by Javier Corrales · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Politics and Society in Latin America #Cuban History and Society
paper · doi:10.2307/3176972
openalex publication_date 2001/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/03/25
The literature on the origins of democratic institutions is split between bottom-up and top-down approaches. The former emphasize societal factors that press for democracy; the latter, rules and institutions that shape elites' incentives. Can these approaches be reconciled? This article proposes competitive political parties, more so than degrees of modernization and associationalism, as the link between the two. Competitive political parties enhance society's bargaining power with the state and show dominant elites that liberalization is in their best interest; the parties are thus effective conduits of democracy. In the context of party deficit, the prospects for democratization or redemocratization are slim. This is illustrated by comparing Cuba and Venezuela in the 1950s and 1990s.