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The world we live in is facing increasingly complex challenges. Climate change, poverty, the just energy transition, income redistribution and gender equality, among others, require increased coordination efforts and the urgent establishment of public policies. An efficient response to these challenges can only come from democracies that are robust and have the capacity to act and legitimacy. And an effective and sustainable democracy inevitably comes with more tools to ensure governance and innovation, as well as higher levels of citizen participation and social support.
There is an extensive literature in political science on these and other concepts, such as that of democratic backsliding or democratic erosion, which refers to the impoverishment and decline in the democratic quality of countries and is more specific to the weakening of the political institutions that support these systems. A large proportion of researchers studying this topic agree that the conditions that have led to these democratic setbacks in the past are the result of a combination of low levels of economic development, problems with governance, and decline of political legitimacy.
Against this background, the concept of democratic sustainability is fundamentally based on the thesis that the greater the state’s performance, the greater the democratic quality. In other words, a more robust state with a professionalized and efficient bureaucracy ensures a higher level of stability, consistent and less erratic public policies, and peaceful democratic transition in accordance with electoral rules. This, in turn, is confirmed by the fact that in the context of a prosperous relationship between state and democracy, politicians have greater opportunities to respond to citizens’ unmet problems and more tools for innovation in decision-making and policy setting. public.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, we face many challenges to strengthening our democracies, and at CAF we are committed to supporting countries in their efforts to achieve these goals. For this reason, our participation and engagement in various dialogues and exchange spaces such as the Recovering the Democratic Initiative Forum that we organized last week in Buenos Aires together with Asuntos del Sur, Collabora Lat, the International Development Research Center of Canada PRISA group and the support of the newspaper EL PAIS. The aim of the meeting was to create a new, diverse and wide space that allows understanding the role of the current political leadership, but also the needs and demands of new citizens, especially young people, in the context of a deep crisis of representation and representation how important it is to restore the democratic agendas that have always been a characteristic feature of our region, now in the context of new references in the context of the climate crisis and the digital revolution.
This initiative will remain in place in our region, as defending democratic values and improving the quality of public debate by the media, international organizations and civil society organizations is a priority shared with the headquarters of this journal. Our very successful América Futura section has achieved this goal.
Other examples of initiatives that we develop from our institution to strengthen individual and collective leadership, as well as create targeted networks at the regional level, are the programs, diploma courses, training and workshops on soft skills that we have carried out for more than 20 years old. These spaces are designed for speakers ranging from the top leadership of nation states to mayors and mayors to social and grassroots leaders who want to gain skills and abilities to transform their environments. We will also soon launch our Generation L program for young leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will intersect with the perspectives of gender, equity and inclusion, and sustainable development.
In addition, we have a space dedicated exclusively to knowledge generation. The most significant research is the Report on Economy and Development, which in each of its editions examines in depth a topic specific to Latin America and the Caribbean, with its challenges and possible lines of development. And in this context, concepts such as democracy, citizenship, state, separation of powers, legitimacy and political institutions are transversal and of great importance in understanding the behavior and fluctuations of the region’s political and economic systems.
Development organizations must work toward our intention to further strengthen nation-states to ensure not only democratic sustainability and citizen participation, but also the courage and policy innovation needed for increasingly democratic responses with greater prosperity, stability and sustainable progress for all people are in the region. We are committed to continuing to work together to close the remaining social, economic, water and sanitation, infrastructure, education, health and technology gaps so that transformation and development are inclusive and for all.
Christian Asinelli He is Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming at CAF – Development Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean.