Enforcing the Rule of Law. Social Accountability in the New Latin American Democracies

ENRIQUE PERUZZOTTI Y CATALINA SMULOVITZ

Pittsburgh University Press

Lugar: Pittsburgh ; Año: 2006 p. 376

9780822958963

Reports of scandal and corruption hace led to the downfall of numerous political leaders in Latin America in recent years. What conditions hace developed thar allow for the exposure of wrongdoing and the accountability of leaders? Enforcing the rule of Law examines how elected officials in Latin American democracies hace come under scrutiny due to new forms of political control, and how theses social mechanisms of accountability have been sucessful in cpunteracting corruption and the limitations of established institutions. This volume reveals how legal claims, media interventions, civic organizations, citizen comittees, electoral observation panels, and other watchdog gropus hace become effective tools for monitoring political authorities. These organizations hace been instrumental in exposing government crime, bringin new issues to the public agenda, and influencing or even reversing policy decisions. Enforcing the Rule of Law presents compelling accounts of the emergence if civic action movements and their increasing political influence in Latin America, and sheds new light on the state of democracy in the region.