A Tale of Two Latin American Countries Within the Same Region and a Very Different Democratic Rule of Law Experience

Abstract

The following thesis analyzes why is the democratic rule of law stronger in Uruguay than in Mexico? This work focuses on the state of the democratic rule of law in Mexico and Uruguay. The premise of this thesis is that there is a gap in the literature on causes that have historically made Uruguay the country with the strongest democratic rule of law in Latin America and Mexico one with the weakest democratic rule of law. Historical institutionalism is used to see how the evolution of the sequencing of political regimes as well as the evolution of civil-military relations in the two countries may explain the divergent outcomes. Emphasizing path-dependency, this analysis is conducted using a methodology of process-tracing. This research serves to put forward propositions in the form of a testable hypothesis on the causes that have led Mexico and Uruguay down different paths when it comes to the democratic rule of law. It also serves to fill a gap in the literature as cross-national differences on rule of law in Latin America have not been sufficiently well-explained.