Revolution and Democracy in Latin America

Abstract

1989 marks the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution and the 30th year of the Cuban Revolution; it is also 10 years since the Sandinista Popular Revolution. The coincidence of these three anniversaries is a propitious opportunity to reflect on the perspectives and significance of a social revolution today in Latin America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, this multiple commemoration occurs in the moment of glasnost and perestroika, of an advancing process of 'rectification of errors and negative tendencies' in the Cuban Revolution, and of a return to market mechanisms in China. The implication in every case has been a profound self-criticism - albeit with different consequences - concerning the ways in which the construction of those different versions of socialism has been camed through. In the social revolutions of the Third World, three basic issues are fused: democracy, national self-determination and development. The way in which each issue is posed, and their reciprocal articulation, is determined in the final analysis by what classes and social groups give impetus and leadership to the revolution. In this essay, I shall consider the question of democracy from the perspective of social revolution, paying particular attention to aspects of the relationship between institutionalised political systems and the revolutionary struggle as it has arisen in Latin America. But is there any point in discussing social revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean, when it would seem self-evident that social revolution is not on the political agenda in the great majority of societies in the region, and when the revolution in Central America is facing such enormous difficulties in its attempts to transform socioeconomic structures in Nicaragua, or to achieve power in El Salvador and Guatemala? Although the question will be answered directly at the end of this essay, it is hoped that the following discussion will lay the basis for a response.