Institutions, culture and democratic consolidation in Latin America

This essay aims to analize the relationship that exists between a democratic political culture and strong democratic institutions. In this sense, this paper focuses on the fact that there is a correlation between those two variables, and that only by that, democratic consolidation can be reached. This paper, then, contradicts the existent literature that affirms that either one of the two variables is always predominant in comparison with the other, with regard to democratic consolidation. This study, then, focuses on the Latin American region, making special emphasis on the Chilean, Ecuadorean, Peruvian and Uruguayan cases. The first hipothesys tested along this paper focuses on the fact that previous establishment of strong democratic institutions such as and independent judiciary and stable party systems create a democratic political culture. The second hypothesys tested is that a democratic political culture that involves tolerance, trust in democratic institutions and preference for democratic values, derives in democratic consolidation.