The Fall of the Alberto Fujimori Government: New Evidence and Interpretations

• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Carlos Federico Domínguez Avila,Carlos Ugo Santander Joo
• Date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19857170
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19857170

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 228, Vol. 46 No. 5, September 2019, 13–24

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19857170

© 2019 Latin American Perspectives

13

The Fall of the Alberto Fujimori Government

New Evidence and Interpretations

by

Carlos Ugo Santander Joo and Carlos Federico Domínguez Avila

Translated by

Mariana Ortega Breña

New evidence and interpretations regarding the end of the authoritarian Alberto

Fujimori regime and the Peruvian democratic transition of 2000 suggest that preexisting

electoral and institutional rules intrinsic to the authoritarian regime contributed to a

process of regime change. Thus Peru can be seen as one of the few Latin American nations

in which the transition was caused by a rupture in contrast to the pacted-reform/rupture

transitions most common in the region.

Nuevas evidencias e interpretaciones sobre el fin del régimen autoritario de Alberto

Fujimori y la transición democrática en 2000 sugieren que las elecciones y las reglas

institucionales preexistentes y propias de la naturaleza de un régimen autoritario

contribuyeron a un proceso de cambio de régimen. Así, Perú puede ser considerado

entre los pocos países en el concierto latinoamericano en los que se estableció una

transición por ruptura a diferencia de las transiciones por pactada-reforma/ruptura

predominante en la region.

Keywords: Peru, Alberto Fujimori, institutions, political transition, legislature

Between 1960 and 1970, most Latin American countries went through some

kind of authoritarian regime. Generally speaking, this authoritarianism was

the result of the social and political tensions caused by institutional crises,

industrialization, changes in the role of the military, and a polarized interna-

tional context. From 1980 on, there was significant sociopolitical change that

led to a set of democratic transitions that included Peru. This new reality

required an update of the research agenda, especially in political science

(Guilhot and Schmitter, 2000: 615). Techniques, approaches, and theoretical

frameworks that had been valid even across disciplines (and, in fact, had

enjoyed dominance because of their orientation toward economic and social

analysis) were replaced by views based on the voluntarism of political actors.

The processes of transition to democracy negotiated in southern Europe and

Carlos Ugo Santander Joo is a postdoctoral researcher in political science at the Libera Università

Internazionale degli Studi Sociali in Rome and a professor and researcher in the Human Rights

Ph.D. Program of the Federal University of Goiás. Carlos Federico Domínguez Avila is a professor

and researcher in the Master’s in Human Rights, Citizenship, and Violence Program at the

Unieuro University Center in Brasilia and a postdoctoral researcher at the Federal University of

Rio Grande do Sul. Mariana Ortega Breña is a freelance translator based in Mexico City.

857170LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X19857170Latin American PerspectivesSantander and Avila / The Fall Of The Fujimori Government

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