Promotion of Democracy in the Hemisphere: Consensus and Limits of the OAS’ action

By taking on the task as the body destined to drive the strengthening of democracy in the hemisphere, the OAS has revived the debate on the scope and limits of international organizations in democratizing processes. This essay maintains the need to build a space bounced by the OAS that, at the same time as it drives democratization in the hemisphere, avoids attributing to itself, supranational, interventionist mandates. The article is divided into three sections. The first describes how, since 1948, the consensus in the OAS has been becoming consolidated around the topic of democracy. The second specifies the four limiting factors the OAS faces in its democratization efforts: scarcity of material resources, the fact that democracy is a matter of national sovereignty, the organism’s real ability to implement coercive measures and the objective impossibility of imposing or “building” democracy from abroad, considering that it is more a social construction than a mere matter of institutional system. In the third and last, the author gives final thoughts in which he stresses the need foster discourse about respect for the plurality of the political and economic organization of the member States. He also emphasizes the idea that it is only through cooperation that democracy can be supported from abroad.