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From its very formation a civil society of any state had two tendencies of development: dem 0 oceanic tendency and antidemocratic one. Antidemocratic tendency includes military regimes and bureaucratic authoritarianism. Until 1980 s many Latin American countries were under the rule of military regimes and dictators. The leaders of them thought that they would be able to protect nations from corruption and inefficient in economy. Though they ruled with heavy repression, and their policy was lack of public opening. In the mid 20 th century the president of Chile was Allende.
His policy against upper and middle class displeased them. In September 1973, he was overthrown by general August Pinochet. His style of military leadership was defined by political scientists as bureaucratic authoritarianism. While military men kept order with varying degrees of harshness and human rights violations, civilian economists and technocrats conducted another policy. Political authoritarianism prevented from free market, laissez-fair policies prescribed in economic and social affairs.
Though inflation fell industrial production also dropped with the decline in the level of official protection. Such situation was in Argentina in the 1960 s and again from 1976 to 1983, under the military governments and in Uruguay after 1973. In Brazil from 1964 to 1985 military presidents and their technocratic advisers paid great attention to the economic affairs of the state. After overcoming serious economic difficulties Peruvian military regime conducted radical program of social and economic reforms giving the way to a more typical bureaucratic authoritarianism regime. The leaders of bureaucratic authoritarianism were sure that no democratically elected regime could put an end to criminal activities, for example, in Columbia: it experience difficulty with violence (i.
d. narco traffickers, paramilitaries and guerrillas). The official government had not been able to put a stop to it. It challenged to democracy in Columbia and the military was involved.
Under many authorial regimes the actions of a civil society had played a central part in the ending of military governments. It was because military regimes closed up any political opening. Their notable features were arrests, tortures and disappearance. But democracy means a political opening for civil society to take part in ruling of its country. A civil society wants to give preferences to the issues that concern them. It wants elected public officers to be accountable for their actions.
The leaders of military regimes have to confront the tension that arises from their policy. Thats why we observe a lot of rights in the states with military regimes and bureaucratic authoritarianism. Such way of rights was caused in Mexico in summer 1968. Long before those events one of the army's Generals Porfirio Diaz dissatisfied with the policy of Benito Juarezs government rebelled against it and became the president of Mexico. He ruled more than thirty years. During this period the economy of the country improved greatly thanks to foreign investment.
But as for civil rights this period was characterized by social inequality and dissatisfaction among the working class. In 1910, Diaz decided to hold an election to serve another term as the president. He thought that there was no serious opposition in Mexico. But he was mistaken. Francisco van Madero, an academic from a rich family, decided to run against him.
He gathered popular support and called the Mexican people to fight against the government and Porfirio Diaz. Madero was taken into prison, but despite his being in jail the Mexican revolution broke. The federal army was defeated by the revolutionary forces. Porfirio Diaz resigned and was exiled to France.
Madero became the president of Mexico. Soon he was killed but the Mexican revolution did not stop. In 1929, the National Mexican Party (PNM) was formed to serve the president general Plutarch Elias Calles. Later PNM became the Partido Revolucionario Institution (PRI). At that time revolutionary generals had their personal armies. PRI succeeded in convincing the generals to dismiss the armies and create the Mexican Army.
The foundation of Mexican Army is considered to be the end of the Revolution. The PRI was a party of Mexican workers, peasants and bureaucrats. It ruled until 1988 and monopolized all the political branches. It was a unique system of limited democracy. It should be said that during PRI regimes Mexico experienced economic growth and relative prosperity. But in spite of it the management of the economy collapsed several times and political rights grew.
In 2000 the PRI ruling ended. Manuel Area Camacho became the president. He moved away from nationalistic autarchy. His regime froze wages, repressed strikes and persecuted decedents. As we see, the Latin American countries followed varying political paths to democracy.
For example, Argentina in the mid - 20 th century had such a political policy as populism. At that time it was ruled by military regime. The member of it was Juan Person. Person took a special interest in social policy. He achieved the productivity of labor by increasing wages, bonuses and pensions. Cuba has chosen another political way to democracy.
In 1933, a revolutionary group led by Fulgenmcio Batista seized the power. International investors began to invest in Cuba till 1950 s. The women were given the right to vote and be elected in Cuba. In 1959, Batista's government was changed by Fidel Castro's forces. He pronounced Cuba a communist country. The communist regime was settled.
But the situation changed after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Cuba suffered great difficulties. Cuban government allowed workers to start their own business. Under the communist regime it was forbidden. In 1994, food starvation caused demonstrations in Havana. A lot of Cubans migrated to the USA.
After the breakdown of the communist regime, Cuba is considered to be the country through which a great amount of drugs is transported. Narcotraffickers use Cuban air space and territorial waters. Having examined political processes in Cuba we can say that nowadays Cuba seems to have two main political regimes: capitalism with democracy and former communism with violation of freedom and human rights. There is no still freedom of the press, unions political parties and all media are controlled by the government as well as the freedom of speech. Opposition groups are rear and, as a rule, they are foreign.
But from the other side, Cuba is one of the few countries that do not use torture, ill treatment and murder by police and security forces. According to the United Nations data, the country has a low level of poverty (4. 7 %). The country pays great attention to health, knowledge economic and social reforms. Education is free in the country. Almost 99. 9 % of primary-school children go to school in Cuba.
The level of education is rather high. After graduating from colleges almost 23 % of students make science careers. But the paradox is that many of them cannot find good and highly-paid job, and have to work hauling tourist suitcases. Paradoxically, Cuba has two economies today: a dollar economy and a Cuban peso economy.
It goes without saying, that all processes that happened in Cuba played a great role on the formation of the nation and influenced all spheres of human life. So, it is for sure that the both styles of life, democratic and totalitarian, had their positive and negative after-effects. Having studying varying ways from military regimes and bureaucratic authoritarianism to democracy, we can say that many aspects of civil military relations proved that military officials had helped to introduce democratic norms into the systems. There is another important conflict in the countries. Ethnic conflicts have considerably worsened the situation in them.
Nowadays ethnic conflicts are major threats to international peace. They have been derived from interstates relationship. Very often different ethnic groups, based on religion, language, and historical difference, stir up against one another. There is a close relationship between the ethnic groups within the society and development of the modern state. The solutions to ethnic conflicts can be classified as domestic and internationally based. Domestic solutions include the establishment of political and cultural institutions which have an influence on the government, documents protecting minority rights, and autonomy arrangements.
International solutions include the re-division of the territory and the stationing of UN peacekeeping troops. Conflicts based on ethnic division are the driving force for many people that one can sacrifice his life trying to change or overthrow a government seen as corrupt and / or oppressive. The best form of democratic government is based on the natural desire of people to govern them with the respect to their ethnic origin. It was the main force for the Mexican Revolution and the Cuban Revolution. The feeling of loyalty to one's ethnic ties can take different forms depending upon the economic and cultural context.
Very often nowadays ethnic difference unites people in a war mentality. Ethnic conflicts can lead to fascist or socialist movements in countries. In the conflicts of that type the whole communities are blamed, rather than individuals. In Mexico, the Frente Zapatista de Liberation National (FZLN) established a strategy based on the creation of autonomous indigenous governments in 30 municipalities.
It meant that other ethnic groups in the country had to do the same so that indigenous procedures could be introduced to elect and substitute their authorities. Democratic participation, equality before the law and protection from arbitrary violence were offered only to the ethnic group in a privileged relationship with the emerging nation-state. Ethnic politics have influenced modern societies to a far greater range than earlier. The modern state that serves in the name of a people takes into account ethnic and national terms. If a nation is successful, immigrants and ethnic minorities are excluded from full participation; they risk being targets of xenophobia and racism.
In weaker states, like Mexico, political closure proceeded along ethnic, rather than national lines and leads to corresponding forms of conflict and violence. Examining the situation in Cuba, it should be said that there is no distinct ethnic groups there. The original societies (The Guanahatabey, The Taino and Ciboney peoples) were ousted by European diseases, severe treatment and unhealthy working conditions (particularly in the Spanish gold mines), starvation resulting from low agricultural productivity, and suicides. Diverse ethnic groups have been settling in Cuba since the time of European contact, including Spaniards and Africans. They had created a heterogeneous society by superimposing their cultural and social characteristics on those of earlier settlers. More than half of Cubans are mulattoes, and nearly two-fifths are descendants of white Europeans, mainly from Spain.
Whites have been the dominant ethnic group for centuries, monopolizing the direction of the economy as well as access to education and other government services. Although mulattoes have become increasingly prominent since the mid- 20 th century, some mulattoes and blacks (of African heritage) still face racial discrimination though they have had a considerable influence on Cuban culture, especially in music and dance. It goes without saying that Mexico and Cuba have different attitude towards different ethnic groups. And they differ in their struggle with corruption. In Cuba, July 14, 1995, President Fidel Castro blamed foreign tourists and businessmen in introducing corruption to the country.
The Cuban Government has set up a ministry to root out corruption and improve efficiency in its economy. An official statement said the new Ministry's aim would be to elevate and guarantee honesty and discipline in the administration of state resources. It is the biggest step so far in a campaign that was begun six years ago by President Fidel Castro to reduce corruption and black market activity with the purpose to control state-run economy. Mr Castro said that the massive corruption flourished under the Batista regime and most previous Cuban presidents.
Cuban leaders emphasized that they did not lead ostentatious lifestyles and wanted the Cuban public to see them as honest and clean-living. Fidel Castro had earlier warned that corruption played a big role in the collapse of the former Soviet Union. He imposed a strict ethics code for officials, new laws against white-collar crime and measures to improve accounting practices. Foreign businessmen operating in Cuba say that levels of corruption are far lower than in most other countries in Latin America, for example, in Mexico. Corruption is like epidemic in Mexico. A lot of scientists have examined the nature of corruption in the country and have come to the conclusion that it is based on individual perceptions toward corruption.
It is measured by participation rates at the sub-national level to a host of demographic, economic and political factors. The extent and pervasiveness of official corruption in Mexico is difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't lived there. Corruption is everywhere and widely accepted as a fact of life. For a lot of things you do in Mexico, especially if they involve a public official, you have to pay the "morbid it means a bribe. It's difficult to explain the degree to which the population takes corruption for granted. So, democratic state in Mexico suffers greatly from corruption and, for sure, it has a dramatic influence on the development of the state.
Two sates with different political, cultural and economic way of living have been examined. There were several common features in their history, but there were a lot of different. I think, that there is no the only right way of developing for the state. Dictation as democracy has its positive and negative sides.
Free research essays on topics related to: latin american countries, fidel castro, positive and negative, 20 th century, economic and social
Research essay sample on Latin American Countries 20 Th Century
