Law and Democracy in Latin America
Brazil

Democracy, Law and Comparative Politics

In the first of a series of readings on the concept of democracy, we encounter a discussion of the elements that need to be present for a country to be truly democratic. With this theoretical framework in mind, we can begin to ask questions that rarely occur to us in this country: When did the US become a democracy? If so, what kind of a democracy was it? If not, what was missing?

In this article O'Donnell addresses what he perceives as the shortcomings of existing theories of democracy. His approach is minimalist - he doesn't want to overload the concept of democracy with a lot of extra baggage - but it is also realistic. Pay especially close attention to his discussions of the difference between those elements that should be part of our definition of democracy, and those things that we think need to be present for democracy to actually happen in practice.

His point of departure for this whole discussion is the concept of agency. He says democracy rests on individual agency, so it is the legal system's job to protect and guarantee individual agency. In addition, he argues, the social context is relevant to democracy, because extreme poverty and inequality makes it very difficult for people to exercise their agency, even if it is guaranteed by the legal system.

«Democracy and the Rule of Law

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