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The Search for New Forms of Political Participation in Latin America A recent study published by Observatorio Electoral, a think tank run by leading Latin American political analysts, highlights some critical aspects of political financing in the region. With the exception of Venezuela, most countries have a mixed system of funding from both public and private sources. Distribution of public funds depends on the parties' political showing and hybrid formulas that combine this measure with equitable distribution of resources, free access to the state media and electoral authorities responsible for supervision of party financing. The study ranks Mexico as one of the countries with the highest level of campaign spending. It cautions that in Mexico and other countries in the region, the decline in campaign contributions from the rank and file has increased the influence of drug trafficking and other criminal interests. As examples, the study cites the presidential campaigns of Jaime Paz Zamora in Bolivia, Ernesto Samper in Colombia and Ernesto Pérez Balladares in Panama. In Colombia, despite the fact that elections are generally free and fair, the infiltrations of drug money has sullied the election process and had a destructive effect on democratic institutions. The extent of the problem was underestimated at first, allowing these hidden forces to use their enormous economic influence to bribe and intimidate private and public authorities, including politicians. Across the region, opportunism and an emphasis on short-term goals have undermined the prospects for significant political change. The trend toward pseudo-caudillismo has made political support more dependent on personal ties or ambitions than ideology. According to researcher Ximena Navas, in Latin America presidentialism has extended so far as to have "direct influence over party financing." The authors of the Observatorio Electoral study propose three measures to control the money collected and spent by parties and campaigns: keeping track of the sources of such financing, requiring parties to make their finances public, and creating a standard methodology for presenting this information. Some critics, including political analyst Heraclio Bonilla, argue that the political system today is characterized not by political parties in their strictest sense but rather electoral machines that function by means of ad hoc coalitions patched together on the eve of voting. Others see a crisis of representation in which parties are being replaced by participatory or direct democracy; for example, through referendums. Many observers also point to a problem of political identity as traditional left-right affiliations erode, depriving parties of their intermediary role as spokesmen for society. Political scientist Eduardo Pizarro comments that political parties in Latin America have not been successful at articulating such interests as gender, environmental concerns, human rights or peace processes. "Parties that are unable to appropriate these forces begin to fail in their political projects," he says. Most of these analyses note the emergence of new political groupings and point out that parties are not the only possible form of democratic politics. Like all political formulas, they claim, their validity depends on the specific circumstances of each nation, which are constantly shifting. Some experts, however, maintain that parties continue to be the basis of the democratic system, although they may change their image, role and composition. Understanding the decline of political parties and the crisis of politics in Latin America is key to proposing new ways of conducting politics that further the democratization of the hemisphere. The goal of such efforts should be to base state-society relations on a shared acceptance of democratic values and institutions. One important step toward this objective is the creation of new channels of popular participation.
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