This turn toward normalization is a major break with the past. The unexpectedly strong showing of media-savvy rightist candidate Joaqu n Lav n in the 1999 presidential elections and the move to the center by Concertaci n candidate Ricardo Lagos suggest that Chile has begun to put the ghosts of Allende and Pinochet to rest. Voting patterns have remained basically unchanged since 1988, giving Lagos a clear mandate to lead Chile into the next millennium. In the November 1999 presidential election, Uruguayans reaffirmed their strong commitment to democracy, while adjusting to a set of constitutional reforms that profoundly altered the electoral system. A country s political regime, regardless of its level of development, affects its social performance.
Fewer children die in democracies than in dictatorships.
Statistical explanations of the authors study. The International Context Jacques Rupnik Nowhere else has the impact of international factors on democratization been as apparent as in Central and Eastern Europe. Integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures is one particularly strong democratizing force. Yet political factors are crucial to understanding the crisis and the differing ways in which the democracies and authoritarian regimes in the region responded to it. A major question in the consolidation of Eastern Europe s new democracies is whether women will participate fully in the political process.