Quality of democracy in Latin American and Eastern European Countries.

An IAPSS Monthly Online Journal


Volume 6: Issue 36
October 2010




New Editorial Board 2010-2011

-Editor : Gabriela MARZONETTO
-Editor : Vasilis KILIARIS
CONTENTS

Editorial
Quality of democracy in Latin American
and Eastern European Countries 3
Vasilis Kiliaris and Gabriela Marzonetto
Opinion Articles
Voting right and minimum age limit 6
Maria-Iliana Pravita
Academic Articles
The Nation State, Migration and Liberty 10
Ines Katic-Vrdoljak
Democratization of the Western Balkans through EU Integration 16
Nemanja, Grgici
Neo-liberalism, consequences on the prospect of democratization
in Latin America 28
Alexandra Dobra
Call for Articles Guidelines 37




EDITORIAL

The IAPSS Online Journal "A Different View" new editor’s team has the honor to welcome you to the first issue for this academic calendar year 2010-2011.
The topic of the ADV October Issue is:
Quality of democracy in Latin American and Eastern European Countries.

Regarding the achievement or not of the aforementioned democratic quality diagnose and indices for the countries in these regions, the editors of the ADV concluded that novel ideas such as the enlargement of the body politic and having the power of individual states reduced and more of their sovereignty surrendered, indeed reveal the different elements inherent in the construction of quality democracies. Furthermore, the analyses of the Eastern Balkans quest towards full democratization and their capabilities to join the EU, how neoliberalism in its economic and political forms has made citizenship from LA countries depoliticized, and how the democratic institutions were dismantled, successfully allows to the ADV readers to compare the achievements in the development of modern democracies in Eastern Europe and Latin America, in a world of constants changes.

Maria-Iliana Pravita in her opinion article examines the potential outcome on Democracy of the enlargement of the body politic by a further reducing of the age limit in political participation and voting. Examples are given and the political maturity of the youth is supported, e.g. by refreshing the body politic and being an institutional mechanism for violence prevention among younger people.
(Pravita, M.I., Voting right and age limit, 2010)
Ines Katic-Vrdoljak examines the balance between the sovereignty of the nation-state and the human liberty in the framework of the contemporary contentious issue of migration. Contemporary concepts such as the globalization, capitalism and neoliberalism along with case studies concerning the refugees in Palestine and in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on data abstracted by International Organizations are Ines arguments to defend her very interesting conclusion that
[W]hile it may be utopian to expect the world to move any time soon beyond the nation-state as the universal principle of political organisation towards a Kantian ideal of the world government that could supposedly eliminate some of the problems, world federalist forces may, if not abolish the system, at least help empower the existing supranational institutions and organizations, notably the United Nations (however with appropriate reforms), thus having the power of individual states reduced and more of their sovereignty surrendered. It is only then that we can possibly find ourselves on the path to a more just world, where individual liberty can be a reality and not just a notion.
(Vrdoljak, I.K., The Nation State, Migration and Liberty, 2010)
Democratization of the Western Balkans through EU Integration by Nemanja Grgici is an article about the challenges and issues in the process of democratization in countries like Kosovo or Serbia nowadays. These countries are working constantly hard in order to fulfill democratic standards, however their work is complicate and it can takes a lot of time. In the last two decades Western Balkan countries have suffered political and economic reforms, that make difficult to achieve the fulfill democracy that they need in order to join the European Union. Nemanja focus his attention in problems including issues of sovereignty, law enforcement and justice (areas in the “Justice and Home Affairs” portfolio of the EU institutions), as well as addressing past conflicts and human rights abuses (transitional justice). He also considers those are the main obstacles in the process of democratization of the countries in the region, and their eventual accession to the European Union. The main contribution of the article is to identify the key issues of the Balkan countries in order to figure out the true motives of the weak democracy in Eastern Europe and, on the other hand, the author give us the possibility to focus our effort in the quest for Eastern Balkan countries full democratization and capabilities to join the EU. (Nemanja, G., Democratization of the Western Balkans through EU Integration, 2010)



Neo-liberalism, consequences on the prospect of democratization in Latin America, by Alexandra Dobra, is concentrating on two case-studies, Brazil and Chile. The author´s analysis is done on a double level: In a first part she considers the consequences of neo-liberalism on the first dimension of the infra-State level, and in a second part it moves to the analysis of the society. Alexandra begins the article with two sharp questions for understanding the neoliberalism consequences in LA: are neo-liberalism and democratization compatible? How did neo-liberalism influence democratization? In the article, the author realizes a review of the history of the two last decades in Latin American Countries, but she focuses her work in Brazil and Chile. Alexandra shows that the neoliberal solution for public debt and democracy crisis did not bring positives responses for LA. Even “the neoliberal solutions” have sunk LA countries in poverty, clientelism, corruption, foreign capital dependency, coalitions between parties and with militaries groups, weak of the parliament and the appearances of charismatic leaders (that are not always democratic). This article aims to demonstrate how neoliberalism in its economic and political forms has made citizenship from LA countries depoliticized, and how the democratic institutions were dismantled. (Dobra, A., Neo-liberalism, consequences on the prospect of democratization in Latin America, 2010)
For further reading and scientific research here are some thoughts:
The opportunity for the advancement of the quality of Democracy in Latin America and Eastern European countries has solid foundations, the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty. Through the new EU Diplomatic Service (European External Action Service) new potentials emerge to become an active multilateral instrument for the enhancement of democracy from the EU to the MERCOSUR member states. Moreover another essential instrument for more democracy is the possibility given in the treaty for 1 million citizens of the EU, from a significant number of member states, can take the initiative to put a specific subject on the EU-Commission’s agenda.

Enjoy reading!