Efeito dominó na América Latina: influência do sistema internacional nos regimes políticos.

Abstract

This paper discusses international factors that influenced two processes: rising of autocratic regimes and democratization, which occurred in Latin America during, respectively, the 1960s and 1970s, and during the 1980s and 1990s. Besides considering endogenous influences, that were determinant in these processes, main external factors which may influenced the regime change waves are discussed.

The main exogenous factors considered are: United States influence over the region, in the first process, through the military assistance programs and by the incorporation of its National Security Doctrine by several Latin American Superior War Colleges; in the second, through a change in United States foreign policy towards Latin American, when democratic values became a main theme in the international agenda and the House of Representatives started to avoid foreign aid to autocratic regimes. Furthermore, the international system, mainly leaded by United States – in the first period characterized by the ideological bipolarization – incentivized the radicalization of political positions in Latin American political systems, leading to a spreading of anticommunist ideologies. During the second period, the international system may have influenced the democratization wave because democracy – especially in terms of respecting human rights – became a condition to negotiate capital lending and participation in the global economy.