Latin America Poverty of Democracy and Democracy of Poverty

Democracy of Poverty James Petras Morris Morley The divergent outcomes resulting from the crises in eastern Europe and Latin America are not the result of the demise of economic systems or the superiority of one system over the other but have more to do with the willingness and capacity of the US to reshuffle political regimes while retaining strategic ties to the underlying authoritarian states and economic elite structures. At the same time Latin America's coercive structures have also exhibited a capacity to hold on to power during periods of transition thus guaranteeing the continuity of the social system against democratic social movements and mass popular upheavals.