Working Paper No.30. Peru's Failed Search for Political Stability (1968-2000)

Abstract

This paper aims at understanding Peru's recent political trajectory, and more specifically its failure at democratic consolidation. How can it be that a country that twenty years ago had probably better chances than most of the Southern Cone Latin American countries to embark on a successful democratic transition, underwent from 1992 onwards an involution that culminated by the year 2000 in a political debacle? How did the Peruvian democratic regime, born of a relatively inclusive constitutional pact, turn twelve years later into an authoritarian one-man show?