2014/01/01 by Julián Durazo Herrmann · 58 citations
Social Sciences · #Politics and Society in Latin America #Political Conflict and Governance #International Development and Aid #Democratization #Clientelism #Authoritarianism #Democracy #Latin Americans #Personalism #Political science #Autocracy #Scholarship #Politics #Political economy #State (computer science) #Sociology #Law
paper · doi:10.1353/lar.2014.0050
published in Latin American Research Review 49(3), 23-44 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/05
A significant shortcoming in Latin American transitions to democracy has been the failure of some subnational units to follow suit, leading to the emergence of authoritarian enclaves. Recently, however, some of these nondemocratic regimes have moved toward a political opening. In this respect, the state of Bahia in Northeastern Brazil is intriguing. Antônio Carlos Magalhães and his associates, known as <i>carlistas</i>, were in office between 1970 and 2006, when Jaques Wagner, from the Worker’s Party (PT), won the gubernatorial election. While the ascent of the PT was saluted as spearheading Bahia’s democratization, numerous observers have signaled important elements of continuity, including personalism, clientelism, and top-down decision making. What changed and what didn’t is thus a pertinent question. To answer it, I use Robert Dahl’s procedural definition of democracy (completed and updated by more recent scholarship) as the guiding criterion to compare carlista and PT rule in Bahia. I conclude with a broad reflection on subnational democratization in Latin America.