The impact of the Pink-Tide extractive economic model on democracy: a comparative study of democratic performance in Argentina and Uruguay

Abstract: The deteriorating quality of democracy in Latin America has been a debated issue for a long time. Numerous theories and authors have proposed different causes and reasons. For instance, Linz argues that the cause is presidentialism, while Brinks, Levitsky, and Murillo suggest that unstable economic and political circumstances have led to institutional weakness in Latin America. Considering the relevance of extractivism in Argentina and Uruguay and bearing in mind that politics and economics are related, this paper builds on dependency theory to investigate how the pink-tide extractive economic model affected democracy from 2005 to 2015. The cross-national comparison results indicate that extractivism is not the only factor negatively impacting their democracy. The findings reveal a positive relationship between fragile institutional checks and balances and the concentration of power in the executive allowing for a greater extractivism impact on democracy. The results of this study support the view that institutional checks and balances are vital to ensure political stability.