Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America

237 Pages·2001·1.762 MB·English

by  Susan C. Stokes

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Mandates and Democracy
Sometimes politicians run for office promising one set of policies and then, if
they win, they switch to very different ones. Latin American presidents in
recent years have frequently run promising to avoid pro-market reforms and
harsh economic adjustment, then win and transform immediately into enthu-
siastic market reformers. Does it matter when politicians ignore the promises
they made and the preferences of their constituents? If politicians want to be
reelected or see their party reelected at the end of their term, why would they
impose unpopular policies? Susan Stokes explores questions of mandates,
promises, and democratic theory in light of the Latin American experience.
She develops a model of policy switches and tests it with statistical and qual-
itative data from Latin American elections over the last two decades. She con-
cludes that politicians may change course because they believe that unpopular
policies are best for constituents and hence also will best serve their own po-
litical ambitions. Nevertheless, even though good representatives will some-
times switch policies, abrupt changes of course tend to erode the quality of
democracy.
Susan C. Stokes is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago
and Director of the Chicago Center on Democracy. Professor Stokes is co-
editor of Democracy, Accountability, and Representation(1999) and editor of Public
Support for Market Reforms in New Democracies(2001). She is the author of Cul-
tures in Conflict: Social Movements and the State in Peru(1995) and of many arti-
cles on democratic theory, political economy, and Latin American politics.

Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics
General Editor
Margaret Levi University of Washington, Seattle
Associate Editors
Robert H. Bates Harvard University
Peter Hall Harvard University
Stephen Hanson University of Washington, Seattle
Peter Lange Duke University
Helen Milner Columbia University
Frances Rosenbluth Yale University
Susan Stokes University of Chicago
Sidney Tarrow Cornell University
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1930–1985
Michael Bratton and Nicolas van de Walle, Democratic Experiments in Africa:
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Valerie Bunce, Leaving Socialism and Leaving the State: The End of Yugoslavia, the
Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia
Ruth Berins Collier, Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in
Western Europe and South America
Donatella della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State
Gerald Easter, Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity
Roberto Franzosi, The Puzzle of Strikes: Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy
Geoffrey Garrett, Partisan Politics in the Global Economy
Miriam Golden, Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss
Frances Hagopian, Traditional Politics and Regime Change in Brazil
J. Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer, eds., Contemporary Capitalism: The
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Ellen Immergut, Health Politics: Interests and Institutions in Western Europe
Torben Iversen, Contested Economic Institutions
List continues on page following the Index.

Mandates and Democracy
NEOLIBERALISM BY
SURPRISE IN LATIN
AMERICA
SUSAN C. STOKES
University of Chicago
         
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
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477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
http://www.cambridge.org
©Susan C. Stokes 2004
First published in printed format 2001
ISBN 0-511-04143-8 eBook
ISBN 0-521-80118-4 hardback
ISBN 0-521-80511-2 paperback
This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Donald E. Stokes,
who opened many paths in the study of democracy, and to the memory of
Luis Castro Leyva, who struggled to defend it.