MASTER'S DEGREE IN PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE

SUBJECT: GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

READING 3: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN
PERU

The problems facing all democratic governance in the Peru project are old and
deep roots. The European conquest of the Inca Empire constituted the
Foundation of the Peru and was a traumatic event that established a persistent
between victors and vanquished social divide. Three centuries of colonial life
prevailed a social, economic and institutional order derived from that original
rupture. During the almost 180 years of Republican life were highlighted the
enormous difficulties facing the peru to become an integrated nation, socially,
economically, politically and culturally.

Rapid social change

Over the past 50 years, the pace of change started to accelerate: various crises,
each of which began at different times of history, converged on a multiple crisis
of proportions almost cataclysmic that materialized the Decade of the 1980s and
the beginning of the 1990s, and had to terrorist violence, hyperinflation and the
breakdown of democratic institutions as its most pernicious manifestations.

Rapid social change over the past 50 years, the pace of change started to
accelerate: various crises, each of which began at different times of history,
converged on a multiple crisis of proportions almost cataclysmic that
materialized the Decade of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, and had
to terrorist violence, hyperinflation and the breakdown of democratic institutions
as its most pernicious manifestations.

At the same time, the population explosion and mass migration from rural to
urban, as well as the emergence of movements of regional affirmation in
different parts of the Peru, removed the foundations of the State, because they
completely altered the social structures that prevailed for centuries. As a result
of these processes have emerged, new actors that have been incorporated into
the national scene, which require their insertion in the market (employment,
income, consumption), and requiring participation in social benefits, education
and politics.

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Other results have been strong questioning the habits and centralist practices,
and awareness about the inability to solve the problems of the various regions
that make up the Peru Lima-centric perspective.

All this sets up what can be called, very schematically, as "the new presence of
the poor' in the Peru. To claim to live, the new urban settlers - migrants from
the countryside - have changed the face of coastal cities, particularly in Lima,
where one-third of the country's population is concentrated. To some extent,
their presence democratizes the cities to significantly expand the number of
citizens who become aware of their economic, social and political rights.

An important milestone in this process of change accelerated in Peruvian society

were the reforms carried out since the end of the 1960s by the Government of
the armed forces who chaired the general Juan Velasco. Agricultural, business
and educational reforms accelerated the process of social transformation that
had been deployed since the 1950s with the oligarchic State crisis, whose hub
exclusive character of power and wealth was questioned those who exerted
political power for the military Government.

Farmers access to ownership of land, recognition of fundamental social rights,

the claim of the quechua language and Andean culture, the appearance of urban
grassroots organizations - with the replacement of the denominations of invader,
slum dwellers and young people - the development of self-managed
communities (for example, Villa El Salvador), the participation of workers in
management and ownership of State and private enterprises were, among
others, some of the practical effects of such reforms.

However, the foregoing, authoritarian character and the military nature of the
political regime established by general Velasco prevented the autonomous
institutionalization of the results of these reforms, i.e. your full acceptance and
appropriation by the society as a whole, at the same time that hindered the
expansion of the exercise of political rights of citizenship. The excessive growth
of the State, fundamental these changes Manager, was also a result of the
actions of Government during this period, which had a negative impact on public
finances.

In summary, Peruvian society underwent deep, radical and rapid changes. The
colony inherited schemes and concepts related to the Creole mentality have been
severely questioned, and concepts and paradigms that traditionally oriented
interpretation of the national reality have lost credibility. As a result of these
structural and conceptual changes, the perception and understanding of the new
social situation by the average citizen is partial, fragmented and distorted.

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Democracy, economic crisis and violence

The return to representative democracy in the Decade of the 1980s coincided

with the emergence of shining path, whose first violent act was the theft of the
amphorae, instruments and symbols of a democratic electoral process. Since
then, daily violence touched and shook practically to all Peruvians, and severely
affected the sense of personal security and emotional stability.

Drug trafficking networks also expanded rapidly, which brought with it the
consequences of corruption, violence and economic distortion. The democratic
Governments of the 1980s, presided over by the architect Fernando Belaunde
and Dr. Alan García, had serious problems to address major issues of the
Decade: the economic crisis and political violence. These obstacles were joined
by difficulties to raise constructive alternatives from who, at different times,
were in opposition.

Thus were highlighted both the ineffectiveness of the Government as the

weaknesses of the opposing political forces.

The difficulties in the process of Constitution of the regional Governments, which,

although they were recorded in the 1979 Constitution, newly implemented in a
way hasty during 1989-1990, as well as the poor performance of many of these
Governments during the next two years, generated a sense of frustration in
virtually all regions of the Peru.

However, decentralization is considered by the vast majority of Peruvians as a

prerequisite for development and national integration; Moreover, from the point
of view of the various regions of the country, centralism is synonymous of
backwardness, misallocation of resources and poor governance. Without
decentralization. The Peru is not viable, is ungovernable, is the phrase that sums
up the perspective of the various regions of the country on this issue.

Las deficiencias del Estado y la extendida corrupción en la esfera del poder

condujeron a la «privatización de facto» de algunos servicios esenciales, como
la seguridad y la justicia. Todo ello contribuyó a la precariedad de la democracia
y al desencanto de la ciudadanía con este régimen político, si bien se mantuvo
el aprecio ciudadano por las elecciones democráticas y la libertad de
expresión que caracteriza a las democracias.

The shortcomings of the State and widespread corruption in the sphere of power
led to the «privatization in fact» of some essential services, such as security and
justice. All this contributed to the precariousness of democracy and the
disenchantment of citizenship with this political regime, although appreciation

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remained citizen by democratic elections and freedom of expression that
characterizes democracies.

Economic reforms, authoritarianism and the crisis of governance

Contradicting his electoral campaign approaches, the engineer Alberto Fujimori

began his Government in 1990 with radical economic reforms, underpinned by
a rationality that places emphasis on the role of the impersonal forces of the
market. This system requires a high degree of individual capacity to meet the
demands of an increasingly competitive society. The economic policies put in
place were successful in the control of the hyperinflation inherited from the
previous Government, if well at the expense of a deep recession and an increase
in poverty rates. At the same time, the Government implemented an anti-
subversive strategy that managed to reduce significantly the actions of terrorist
groups and managed to capture the leader of the Sendero Luminoso.

However, the authoritarian behavior and the political inexperience of the

engineer Fujimori led him to face their difficulties with the opposition in the
Parliament through the self-coup of State in April 1992. This interruption of
constitutional order represented a return to the alternation of democratic and
authoritarian governments, that is the clearest expression of the series of crises
of governance and good government that the Peru has lived for most of his life
Republican.

Despite this, the achievements both in the fight against terrorism, particularly
the capture of Abimael Guzman, as in control of the hyperinflation were
perceived by citizens as a sample of government efficiency, which resulted in
high levels approval of the governance and the engineer Fujimori. The
President's approval ratings reached 80% in April 1992 and remained around or
above 65% throughout the year.

However, in later years, particularly after his re-election in 1995, popularity

ratings of President have gradually declined due to wear on the Government,
joblessness, corruption and the perception by the public of that continues with
an authoritarian style that is unnecessary and counterproductive. Despite this,
at times perceived greater activity and a strong presence of the President in
national life - because of the release of the hostages and the MRTA in the Japan
Embassy assistance to those affected by the el Niño phenomenon - the level of
approval d (e) the presidential management has recovered significantly.

In the context of economic stagnation and widespread poverty, the pressures of

the rationality of the market and the collective tradition that characterizes the
Peruvian society, especially in rural areas, give rise to contradictory forces.

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Peruvians are thrust in different directions at the same time: on the one hand,
towards coordinated action to improve the prospects for survival and, on the
other, toward individual action that is perceived as the basis of success in the
market. Although the tension between these two forces has given rise to
expressions of creativity, it has also amplified the feelings of insecurity and
anxiety in the citizenry.

En resumen, el marco institucional de la sociedad peruana ha demostrado ser

incapaz de dar respuesta a los procesos acelerados de cambio social que tuvieron
lugar durante los últimos cinco decenios. Durante este período colapsaron las
formas mediante las cuales se ejerce el poder y la autoridad en la conducción de
asuntos económicos y sociales; es decir, el Perú ha tenido que enfrentar diversas
crisis de gobernabilidad democrática y de buen gobierno. Sin embargo, esto no
indica que el autoritarismo es inevitable.

In short, the institutional framework of the Peruvian society has proved to be

incapable of responding to the accelerated processes of social change that took
place during the last five decades. During this period, they collapsed the forms
through which power and authority is exercised in the conduct of economic and
Social Affairs; i.e., the Peru has had to deal with different crisis of democratic
governance and good government. However, this does not indicate that
authoritarianism is inevitable.

The history of the Peru and the current situation highlight trends towards
authoritarian behavior both towards the democratic behaviour at all levels of
society; It is not possible to consider the existence of an authoritarian essence
in the political conduct of the Peruvians. Which prevail and consolidate one or
another trend depends, largely, in the way that there is power and the political
authority from the Government, as well as the values and habits of coexistence
that develop and inculcate in basic areas of socialization of the citizens who are
the family and the school.

Moreover, the creative - although fragile - answers that have emerged to

address the overwhelming set of economic, social and political problems indicate
that capacity and initiative demonstrated by the grass-roots organizations and
informal entrepreneurs they could - fed in a climate of broad democratic
freedoms - provide an output to the multidimensional crisis that has lived the
Peru during the last decades of the 20th century.