Latin American transitions Essay Example for Free

Latin American transitions Essay Besides, scholars regard existence of effective multi-party political system in the country as a necessary element for ensuring efficient control of the society over authorities (Randall Svasand, 2001, p. 77). For example, party development is regarded among scholars as an essential element of democratization in Eastern Europe, the development of political parties was an omnipresent topic especially with regard to the new democracies in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Penna, 1998, p. 108). While definitions of democracy abound and there is little agreement on which factors contribute to bringing democracy about or to its consolidation, a recurrent refrain is the vital role that is played by parties. Surveying prospects for consolidation in sub-Saharan Africa, scholars suggests the key indicator is â€Å"the capacity to develop a political party system which is both integrative between different communities, and competitive between different parties† (cited in Randall Svasand, 2001, p.75). Similar conclusions about the importance of parties are being expressed by many experts in the field. Moreover, the role of parties has received especial attention in the literature on Latin American transitions. Scholars argue that in assessing prospects for democratic survival and consolidation in this region much may depend on political parties (Armijo, 2005, p. 2024). Scholars noted one more important aspect of political activities – that the extent to which political democracy and equality can be achieved in any society is a function of the distribution of access to political resources. They describe political resources as anything that can be used to influence government decisions: money, wealth, social standing, honor, reputation, legal status, knowledge, cognitive abilities, information, coercive capacity, organiza ¬tions, etc. (Penna, 1998, p. 105). It seems, then, that to democratize, access to these political resources must be distributed to a wider and wider circle of the population. This allows more and more people not only to participate in the political process, but to have influence over decisions. In this situation not only high art of political authorities is in demand, but in fact democratic structure of the parties and their ability to carry out effective dialogue with other parties functioning in the developing country to achieve consensus.