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Based on fifty years worth of data, Assessing Democracy in Latin America examines and compares the progress of Latin American countries toward democracy. The essays in this volume, all written by contributors to the Fitzgibbon Democracy Survey, focus their analyses on those factors most germane to the growth, maintenance, or failure of democratic systems. For example, in his initial chapter, Philip Kelly identifies two variables, mechanized agriculture and per-capita newspaper circulation, as the best statistical indicators of democracy in Latin America. Other contributors explore a variety of new topics such as the connection between democracy and environmental movements (Kathryn Hochstetler and Steven Mumme), political parties (John D. Martz), and social dynamics (Robert L. Peterson).Initiated in 1945 as a method of measuring and ranking Latin American democratic systems, the Fitzgibbon Democracy Surveys longevity and scope provide an unparalleled wealth of scholarly research. This volume offers what few others like it can: a longitudinally deep data set (eleven surveys over the past fifty years) and closely coordinated coverage of the complete range of Latin American countries by specialists assembled expressly for that purpose.