Democracy: Does it really exist in Latin America?

Hi guys. Today I want to talk about democracy and is that as we have seen in the news, some Latin American countries are in the international focus due to certain systems of governments implemented in this region. To begin we must know how this system of government so longed for in the world arises, but we will do it in a general and didactic way to facilitate understanding, accompany me in this new literary adventure.

Most countries in the world are defined as democracies. In Greek "Demos" means "People" and "Kratos" means "Power, Government". A democratic regime would be where the people rule, but really ... is there democracy?

Human societies have been organized in different ways over time, everything indicates that in the stone age when the groups were not very large and there was little wealth to accumulate, the power was fairly distributed and the only superiority that was recognized was the of the oldest with respect to the minors.

One of the first cities that has registration is Çatalhöyük, a society of about 8 thousand years ago in which there was a "special" person to call Governing. But everything changed when he began to think that some people were more important than others. Since prehistory there were shamans or priests who served as a bridge between the physical and spiritual world, one of their jobs was to observe the stars, which were thought to have messages for humans.

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Since the emergence of agriculture, this role became more important: the message of the stars indicated when to plant and when to harvest, for example. The priests, connected with the stars and the gods were acquiring more power and a horizontal organization was forming a hierarchy.

The word "Hierarchy" means "sacred order". For the ancient Egyptians the pharaoh was an intermediary between the people and the gods. The Japanese emperor is considered the "Celestial Sovereign". And for many years it was thought that the authority of kings came from God, even today many believe that authority is of divine origin. When the ruler is one, the form of government is called "Monarchy", but not all peoples have been monarchical. For example, we know that there were and there are indigenous societies in which decisions are made collectively

In Western culture since the fifth century BC, in Athens, Greece, emerged that is recognized as the first democracy. Everyone took part in the decisions that affected the community, you could not participate if you were a young man without military training, if you did not own land, if you or your parents had debts to the city, if you were a slave ... or if you were a woman. It was thought that only men with property had the right to decide, it took many years for the right to vote to be for everyone.

To give an example, in the United States it was until 1870 that men of African descent had the right to vote and women achieved recognition of that right until 1920. In Mexico it was not guaranteed until after many struggles, until 1953.

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The model of democracy that prevails in most of the American and European countries in Montesquieu's ideas about the division of powers. The idea is that there is a part of the state that writes the laws, the legislative power, with its deputies and senators; another that interprets those laws and resolves disputes, the judicial power in which the judges and magistrates are; and another that executes the law and maintains the responsibility for the government, the executive power, of which the head of state (which in many countries is the president or the prime minister) and the ministers and secretaries are part.

If democracy worked as expected, all citizens would choose by vote to those who are part of these powers. From the options proposed by the political parties we choose our representatives, that is, ideally we can select who makes the decisions for us. This is called "Representative Democracy." But you have 3 drawbacks:

• The first is that there are more powers than the 3 officially recognized. From the twentieth century the media became so important in influencing the formation of public opinion and even in deciding who won the elections, that they began to say that they constituted a fourth power.
  Also other organizations such as churches and large companies have enough resources to influence social decision making even if they are not recognized as part of the State. These are called "De Facto Powers". An example: according to surveys in the United States, 66% of the population supports a stricter control of weapons. But the National Rifle Association (NRA), a factual power supported by large arms manufacturers, has prevented that from happening.

• The second is that, although ideally each political party represents a sector of society, at present this does not happen: the members of the parties form their own sector, it is called "the political class". They defend their own interests and often use the interests of people as campaign slogans.

• The third is that in many of the Latin American countries a large part of the population does not have sufficient historical, political and scientific knowledge, which makes it easier to be a victim of manipulation, making decisions thinking of individual and immediate gratifications instead of social benefits. long term.

Characters as different as Pierre - Joseph Proudhon and Franklin D. Roosevelt, agree that there can be no democracy if there is no education.

Therefore we can conclude: in the Latin American national states there is still no true democracy. There's a solution? Yes. Which one? It is important that we reach higher levels of education to become an authentic knowledge society. And learning we will realize that other models of organization are possible, such as the one that existed in the commune of Paris or those that are already practiced by some indigenous communities. Or as participatory democracy, for example, in which, instead of choosing those who decide for us, we are the ones who make the decisions.

We can begin to be part of citizens' organizations: workers who demand their rights, neighbors who improve their neighborhood, observatories that watch the media and politicians ... maybe the day will come when we do not need to elect governors because we will govern ourselves. For now, inform yourself, get organized and participate.

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Acronym.
NRA: The National Rifle Association of America.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2018/2/14/17012770/latin-america-democratic-demise
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/democracy
• https://theglobalobservatory.org/2017/02/latin-america-democracy-venezuela-brazil-argentina/
• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk#Econom%C3%ADa_y_sociedad