THREE

The Western
Hemisphere: The World
of Democracies II

REVOLUTION IN THE REGION

To the extent that political and economic institutions determine the nature of a region's international role, Latin America is comparable to the nations bordering the North Atlantic. Its political systems are democratic; its economies are increasingly market-oriented; disputes between its nations are settled by negotiation or arbitration. Wars between the countries of Latin America are, to all practical purposes, excluded. Occasional border confrontations, such as those between Peru and Ecuador in the 1980s, stand out as throwbacks to an earlier age, unlikely to be repeated in any significant way in the years to come. Arms expenditures as a proportion of the domestic product are lower in Latin America than in any other region of the world. From these perspectives, Latin America—especially Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico—is entering the globalized world and marks a success story for the principles of democracy and free markets. When President Clinton, at the Western Hemisphere summit in Miami in December 1994, proposed a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), he was appealing to this Latin American world.

But there is also another Latin American world that is underde-