{"id":59822,"date":"2026-10-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=59822"},"modified":"2026-10-14T17:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:02:18","slug":"democracy-is-improving-but-its-checks-and-balances-remain-at-risk-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/democracy-is-improving-but-its-checks-and-balances-remain-at-risk-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy is improving, but its checks and balances remain at risk. Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Support for democracy is rebounding in Latin America, but it coexists with low satisfaction with government, tolerance for executives operating without checks and balances, and an electoral shift to the right that does not yet amount to a profound ideological transformation.<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 AmericasBarometer brings welcome news that calls for caution: after more than a decade of deterioration, support for democracy has begun to rise again in Latin America. Sixty-five percent believe that, despite its problems, democracy is preferable to any other form of government. This is six percentage points higher than in 2023 and the highest level in more than ten years. The increase is evident across almost all countries, age groups, and educational levels; it is not concentrated in any single segment. Moreover, the AmericasBarometer serves as a key reference point for analyzing this positive trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconciled with democracy\u2014or not?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recovery does not amount to a definitive reconciliation with the system. Uruguay records 86% support, while Peru stands at just 50%. Between these two extremes, the region is once again valuing democracy, but judging it by concrete results. Those who have not experienced requests for police bribes show ten percentage points more support for democracy. Among those who have not suffered food insecurity, support is nine points higher. Finally, those whose incomes increased showed seven percentage points more support than those whose incomes declined. According to data reflected in the AmericasBarometer, democracy regains support when everyday life stops getting worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that material improvement has not produced an equivalent recovery in trust in government. The report does not provide a single overall measure of \u201csatisfaction with institutions,\u201d but it does offer precise indicators of how citizens experience the state. Satisfaction with municipal services rose from around 30% in 2018\/19 to 36% in 2026. It remains low and uneven: it reaches 52% in Nicaragua and 50% in Honduras, compared with 16% in Bolivia and 18% in Peru. Moreover, only four out of twenty presidents enjoy majority approval, while requests for police bribes have remained at around 11% or 12% for a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most troubling finding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting democracy does not necessarily mean defending its checks and balances. The AmericasBarometer does not directly measure acceptance of \u201cdissolving\u201d the legislature or the Supreme Court. Instead, it measures something different, though related: the willingness to tolerate a president who ignores judges and overrides the legislature, manipulates the law, restricts the opposition, or governs without constraints. This distinction prevents the data from being overstated, but it does not diminish the seriousness of the finding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General support for democracy does not necessarily imply support for all its liberal rules. Many people say they prefer democracy but tolerate the executive weakening institutional checks. Elections are the exception: among those who reject electoral rules, support for democracy stands at just 42%, while among those who support them, it rises to 72%. This suggests that, for a large part of the population, democracy is associated above all with voting rather than with limiting the power of whoever wins. In short, in the current Latin American worldview, democracy begins and ends with the election of the person who governs. The AmericasBarometer is therefore essential to understanding how the limits of the system are perceived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does democracy mean today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new index of support for \u201cilliberal majoritarianism\u201d confirms this tension. Its average ranges from 4.46\/7 in El Salvador to 3.36\/7 in Argentina. More than 60% of respondents in El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Guatemala fall within the 4-to-7\/7 range. In most other countries, at least half fall within that range. Even in Argentina and Uruguay, the figure exceeds 35%. This is not a marginal attitude, nor one confined to democracies in decline. It is a widespread conception according to which winning elections entitles the executive to reduce checks, rights, and opposition voices. Indeed, the AmericasBarometer reveals how this phenomenon affects the quality of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paradox becomes clearer when we examine what democracy means to Latin Americans. The rule of law is the leading association for 30.3%, followed by equality at 25% and freedom at 24.4%. Citizen participation accounts for 10.5%, and elections for 9.7%. Society demands order, fair treatment, and rights. The risk emerges when a leader presents these outcomes as incompatible with institutional constraints and turns an electoral majority into authorization to govern unchecked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shift to the right<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The so-called shift to the right also requires precision. Self-identification with the right rose to 36% in 2026, after remaining between 31% and 34% from 2006 through 2023. This is a real increase, but still below the 41% recorded in 2004. Significant gains occurred in Colombia, from 29% to 40%; Panama, from 23% to 33%; Bolivia, from 25% to 34%; and Brazil, from 46% to 50%. Argentina, however, declined from 27% to 26%, while Chile rose only from 23% to 28%, despite the victories of right-wing leaders mentioned in the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, the Barometer does not allow us to conclude that Latin America has durably embraced the far right. In the report, that label is associated with specific candidacies, whereas the regional variable measures self-identification with the right, whose meaning varies from country to country. What we are seeing is a conservative electoral wave that is more pronounced than the ideological shift among citizens. It may reflect punishment of incumbents, a search for effective governance, or personalistic loyalties, without consolidating a new political identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusion is uncomfortable: democracy is regaining support, but not necessarily gaining defenders of all its rules. Citizens value elections, security, equality, and freedom, yet remain dissatisfied with government performance and willing to relax institutional checks. The regional challenge is not simply to improve economic indicators or hold clean elections, but to rebuild the understanding that Congress, judges, and the opposition are not obstacles to governing, but essential conditions for ensuring that a democratic majority does not become power without limits. Finally, the AmericasBarometer provides essential insights for the debate over the region\u2019s political future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*This text was originally published in Di\u00e1logo Pol\u00edtico.<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Support for democracy is rebounding in Latin America, but it coexists with low satisfaction with government, tolerance for executives operating without checks and balances, and an electoral shift to the right that does not yet amount to a profound ideological transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":59778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16844,16925],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":["post-59822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-democracia-en","category-ideologia-en","tag-debates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59824,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59822\/revisions\/59824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59822"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=59822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}