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A Desultory Defense of Democracy: OAS Resolution 1080 and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Barry S. Levitt
Barry S. Levitt*
Affiliation:
Emory University
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Abstract

This article evaluates the effectiveness of OAS mechanisms for safeguarding democracy through multilateral diplomacy, what some scholars have dubbed the interamerican defense of democracy regime. Drawing on a range of international relations theories, this study derives competing hypotheses about member states' responses to democratic crises in the Americas. It then analyzes all instances in which a collective response—that is, an application of Resolution 1080 or the Inter-American Democratic Charter—was debated in the OAS between 1991 and 2002. Patterns of state behavior suggest that domestic politics, rather than the structural or systemic traits of the interamerican system, best explain foreign policy responses to crises of democracy in the region. The OAS record in confronting such crises is uneven.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2006 , pp. 93 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2006

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