The transnational process of modernization accentuates social fragmentation, giving rise to a demand for "community". The preference for democracy in Latin American countries seems to be motivated mainly by the identification of the democratic order with the restoration of a "community." If emerging democracies do not meet this demand, they risk a populist or fundamentalist regression to absolute truths and closed identities. As substitutes for community, they will only disappear as we develop new forms of social integration and collective identity. One of the greatest challenges for Latin American democracy lies, then, in accounting for that subjective basis of its legitimacy.
Keywords:
Latin America, Democracy, Modernization, Reformism, Community
Author Biography
Norbert Lechner, FLACSO Chile
Director de la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales - FLACSO, Santiago.
Lechner, N. (1991). Condiciones socio-culturales de la transición democrática : a la búsqueda de la comunidad perdida. Estudios Internacionales, 24(94), p. 209–228. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-3769.1991.15458
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