Theoretically, why would it be the case that these regional intergovernmental
organizations can be characterized as clubs of presidents? There are a variety of reasons for the relationship between the regional IGOs and the executive branches, including the way member states are represented at the various IGOs, the role of the Secretary General in each organization, the procedural rules in each organization, and finally, the understanding of the applicability of the various defense-of-democracy documents in the organizations. I will discuss each of these factors in turn, starting with an overview of the OAS.
In the majority of states in the inter-American system, the ambassadors to the OAS are nominated or appointed by the executive and fall under the direction of the Executive branch. The Ambassadors of the member states represent their governments at various meetings held in the Organization, including in the Permanent Council meetings. At the General Assembly, the Foreign Ministers of the countries represent the member states. However, the ambassadors and foreign ministers are generally not considered representatives of civil society or the opposition parties in their countries, but rather are considered to be representatives of the presidents,
receiving their direction from the executive branch. As a result, the ambassadors to the OAS tend to represent the executive and his or her policy preferences, not the policy preferences or
concerns of other branches of government.
The Secretary General (SG) of the OAS is elected by the member states (represented through their Foreign Ministers or other appointed officials) in special sessions of the General Assembly, where each member state has a seat and a vote. The Charter of the OAS gives the Secretary General a small degree of autonomy, although the use of that autonomy has varied
with the leadership style of each Secretary General. According to the OAS Charter, the SG can “bring to the attention of the General Assembly or the Permanent Council any matter which in his opinion might threaten the peace and security of the Hemisphere or the development of the member states” and can “participate with voice but without vote in all meetings of the
Organization” (Charter of the Organization of American States, Article 110). Although the SG can speak out about issues regarding democracy in member states, the movement towards further action (such as the passage of a resolution or the undertaking of a mission) is limited to
acceptance of the actions by the member states in their capacity as sovereign entities in an IGO. In other words, the SG can speak out against what he perceives as undemocratic behavior by an actor in society, but he cannot unilaterally require the member state to address his concerns nor can he unilaterally punish a member state for undemocratic behavior.
Although civil society groups have access to parts of the OAS, they do not have the same rights or role as member states. They do not have the power of a vote and are only allowed to attend committee meetings with the authorization of the Secretariat, although they are authorized to submit reports on areas of expertise if an item that falls under that expertise is already on the agenda. Civil society organizations are also able to give presentations at Permanent Council meetings, but only with the authorization of the appropriate committee in advance. Finally, civil society organizations are not allowed to “participate in deliberations, negotiations, or decisions adopted by member states” (“OAS CP/Res.759 (1217/99)” 1999). In some cases, civil society organizations are present for meetings discussing concerns over democracy or democratic crises in a member country, but again, they have no ability to require a member state to accept
mediation or good offices, nor do they have the ability to invoke the primary democratic
voice in the Organization, their access is limited by the member states and the Secretariat. The only members that have the right to both voice and vote are the member states themselves, as represented by the ambassadors appointed by the executives of each member state.
The structure of UNASUR and Mercosur are slightly different than the OAS and the leadership structures of these two organizations provide even greater theoretical backing to the “club of presidents” argument. The heads of state directly play a much larger role in both UNASUR and Mercosur than in the OAS. For example, the Secretary-General of UNASUR is elected to a two-year term on a consensual basis by the heads of state of each member state (as opposed to the election by secret vote of the SG by the proxies of the executive at the OAS). The President Pro-Tempore of UNASUR is designated on a rotating basis among the heads of state of the member states. The President Pro-Tempore presides over meetings and represents the
organization at international events. The Presidents of the member states within UNASUR also meet at regularly scheduled meetings once a year, compared to the Summits of the Americas of the OAS, which have been held every three years since 1994. The Presidents of UNASUR can also meet in extraordinary meetings, whereas the extraordinary meetings of the Permanent Council of the OAS are at the ambassador-level and the meetings of the General Assembly of the OAS are at the foreign minister level. The comparison of the representation at meetings of UNASUR and the OAS demonstrate a strong bias towards the executive in both organizations, but an even greater bias towards the executives in UNASUR.
The Council of Heads of State is the most senior committee in UNASUR’s structure, and, as its name indicates, is composed of the Heads of State (Flannery 2012). The other committees in UNASUR are the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Council of Delegates. These
Based on the structure of UNASUR, it is clear that the heads of state are the most influential actors in the Organization. As a result, UNASUR is likely to represent the preferences of the executives in the Organization since they are the ones that have the ability to vote and are the main players at the key institutions within UNASUR.
In the same vein as UNASUR, the make-up of Mercosur prioritizes the executive branch in decision-making roles. Mercosur was created in 1990 after the signing of the Treaty of Asunción and is primarily an economic union between the countries of Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, although numerous states are associate members (Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru). In 1998 a democracy clause for the union was created with
the signing of the Ushuaia Protocol on Democratic Commitment32. The Protocol allows the
organization to suspend a member state from the Union for a “rupture in the democratic order” in one of the states (Article 3). As with UNASUR and the OAS, foreign ministers and the heads of state of each member state are the key decision-makers in Mercosur. For example, the most important institution of Mercosur, The Council of the Common Market (known simply as “The Council”), is composed of the Foreign Relations and Economic Ministers of the member states and is the council responsible for the political leadership of integration, for making decisions to ensure compliance with the Treaty of Asunción, and for the supervision of other Mercosur institutions, with the ability to modify or eliminate them (Porrata-Doria 2005, 28). Although Mercosur does have a Joint Parliamentary Commission and plans to evolve it into a Mercosur Parliament, as of 2015 the body is limited to an advisory function (Porrata-Doria 2005, 31). As with the OAS and UNASUR, the decision-making bodies in Mercosur are dominated by the representatives of the executive branch of each member state.
32 The Protocol of Ushuaia on Democratic Commitment in Mercosur is also commonly known as the “Protocol of Ushuaia.” I will refer to it from this point in its shortened form.
Based on the structure of the decision-making bodies, it is clear that executives are over- represented compared to the other institutions of government. With an over-representation of the viewpoints and preferences of the executives of each state, the regional intergovernmental organizations are more likely to act based on the preferences of the executives. This structure incentivizes the executives of each member state to focus on threats to executives and to minimize instances of executive abuse. As a result, the norm is one where presidents are protected from threats but refrain from criticizing or punishing each other for undemocratic behavior, lest they later be criticized or punished themselves. Said another way, presidents are likely to support each other in protecting their positions in power: holding extraordinary (unscheduled) Permanent Council meetings, invoking the democratic defense mechanisms, or issuing official declarations of support from the Permanent Council when a president is threatened. However, they will also either ignore acts of presidential overreach to reduce the impact of the regional IGOs in addressing presidential overreach.
With regards to procedural rules, there are a number of reasons regional organizations prioritize not only sovereignty, but also the role of the executive branch in each country. Unless there is an alteration or interruption of the democratic or constitutional order, regional
organizations are limited in the interventions they can take. The definitions of these terms are vague and ambiguous, a concern noted by McCoy (2001), Cooper (2004), and Cameron (2012). At the OAS, for example, in the absence of an alteration or interruption of the democratic order, the member state must give its consent to the visits or other actions authorized by Article 18 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) to address a democratic crisis. Even if a member state requests the invocation of the IADC, any further involvement in the country by the regional IGO is continually subject to the receptiveness of the member state. This is important not only
because it allows member states to actively limit the role of intergovernmental organizations, but it is also built on the idea that the member state (as represented by an ambassador accountable to the executive branch) can limit the use of the primary democratic instruments in cases that are not clearly coups d’etat or autogolpes. Without the authorization of the member state, regional IGOs are limited to responding to the most egregious instances of democratic crisis and are unable to address the lower level attacks on the democratic order which reduce the quality of democracy over time.
It is also important to note the role of voting on measures in the Permanent Council and General Assembly of the OAS and how that can reduce the ability of the regional organizations to respond to democratic crises. In order to make decisions in the Permanent Council and General Assembly, either an absolute majority or a 2/3 vote, depending on the issue, is required of the member states, although there is an informal norm that votes should be consensus (OAS Charter, Articles 59 and 89). Naturally, if a member state is being accused of undemocratic behavior, the ambassador of the member state is not likely to vote for the condemnation of his or her own president or government. It requires the political will of the other member states to override the preferences of the member state in question, which during cases of presidential abuse is less likely to occur as compared to cases of threats to an incumbent executive. In Mercosur and UNASUR, actions require a consensus vote, making action even less likely in the case of presidential overreach.
Finally, the development of the mechanisms for the defense of democracy paradigm demonstrates a trend towards sovereignty and the types of events that are considered crises. The OAS has the longest history of a defense of democracy paradigm, so I primarily address that history, although I will also note the key democracy documents of UNASUR and Mercosur and
the ways in which the documents demonstrate a preference towards the role of the executives in responding to democratic crises.
The promotion of democracy in the region accelerated following the end of the Cold War, when security concerns regarding communism and the influence of the Soviet Union declined dramatically. In the early 1990s, in addition to the creation of the Unit for the
Promotion of Democracy (UPD), now known as the Democracy Program Unit, the OAS General Assembly passed Resolution 1080, which created a mechanism to respond to “sudden or
irregular interruptions of the democratic political institutional process.” The mechanism was (theoretically) meant to be immediate, and the Secretary General would convene the Permanent Council, which would examine the situation and recommend a meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or the General Assembly, if warranted, within ten days of the crisis (OAS AG/Res. 1080; Boniface 2007). Although Resolution 1080 articulated the mechanisms for a response in the event of an interruption of the democratic institutional process, the consequences for a member state in the event of a crisis were not articulated clearly in Resolution 1080. In 1992, the Washington Protocol was added to the OAS instruments, which established the potential consequences for a crisis in which a “democratically constituted government has been overthrown by force.” If a crisis occurs in which there is an overthrow of the government by
force, the response may entail suspension from the OAS “with a two-thirds vote in the General
Assembly” (Boniface 2007, his emphasis). In other words, even if a crisis occurs that falls under
the bounds of Resolution 1080 and the Washington Protocol, a suspension is not necessarily an immediate or foregone conclusion.
The same is true for the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) of the OAS. In 2001, the IADC was signed by the member states of the OAS, which “superseded and potentially
widened the scope” of Resolution 1080 (Boniface 2007: 45). The IADC authorizes any member state or the Secretary General to convene the Permanent Council to undertake a “collective assessment and appropriate diplomatic initiatives” in the case of an “unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order or an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that
seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state” (Articles 19 and 20). Unless there is an unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order or an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime, the member state of the crisis country must request the invocation (Article 18).
For Mercosur and UNASUR, the most important documents with regards to democracy are the Protocol of Ushuaia (1998) and the Democracy Clause of the Constitutive Treaty of UNASUR (2010), respectively. Both clauses allow for the activation of the defense-of- democracy mechanisms in the event of a “rupture” in the democratic process in their states. UNASUR’s democracy clause states that the mechanism will be activated in the event of a “rupture or threat of a rupture to the democratic order, a violation of the constitutional order, or to any situation which presents a risk to the legitimate exercise of power and the validity of democratic values and principles” (Article 1). The Protocol of Ushuaia states that “a rupture of the democratic order” allows for the member states to convene and initiate diplomatic
mechanisms to address the rupture. If diplomatic initiatives fail, the member states can then suspend the crisis state with a consensus vote (Articles 4 and 5). The creation of and application of new mechanisms with which to support democracy demonstrate a regional trend towards the development of a defense-of-democracy regime, although there are still important caveats regarding the application of the defense-of-democracy instruments.
For example, a key concern with the democracy clauses and agreements of the regional IGOs has been the use of a variety of terms to define the conditions under which the primary democratic instruments could be invoked. Terms such as “unconstitutional interruption,” “alteration,” and “rupture” do not clearly define the instances in which the democracy clauses can be activated. As a result, it is not explicitly clear which cases fall under the definition of “alteration” or “rupture.” Therefore, the ability of the regional IGOs to respond to crises depends on the understanding of the meaning of the wording of the democracy clauses. As Boniface (2007) notes in his analysis of OAS responses from 1990-2007, the general consensus in the literature and in practice has been that military coups that unseat elected presidents are instances of democratic crises that clearly fit into the definition of “sudden or irregular interruption,” along with “self-coups (autogolpes) by elected presidents that nullify legislative and judicial checks and balances, and civil-military crises in which there is a credible threat of a military coup” (46). However, failed coup attempts, electoral failures, and constitutional crises do not appear to fit the criteria determined by the democracy clauses (Boniface 2007: 47). In other words, with the exception of autogolpes, the clauses and agreements that make up the defense of democracy paradigm in Latin America are limited to crises in which presidents are threatened, and less severe crises in which presidents overreach their authority but where their actions do not amount to autogolpes do not fall under the jurisdiction of the democracy clauses, despite the reality that many of the actions serve to reduce the quality of democracy over time. The lack of agreement and understanding on what constitutes a violation of the democracy clauses provides an
additional theoretical basis for the hypothesis that the regional organizations in Latin America can be described as “clubs of presidents.”
The role of the OAS in responding to autogolpes deserves a brief special mention, as autogolpes represent a type of crisis in which the OAS has responded relatively forcefully, in spite of the idea of the OAS as a “club of presidents.” In the two instances of autogolpes in the early 1990s, Peru 1992 (President Alberto Fujimori) and Guatemala 1993 (President Jorge Serrano), the OAS SG convened a meeting of the Permanent Council, where the member states rejecting the undemocratic actions in each member state, invoked Resolution 1080, authorized missions, and worked with the governments of the crisis states to find a resolution to the crisis. Although the final outcome of each crisis varied- in Peru, Fujimori was able to use the strong public support for his autogolpe and convinced the OAS to accept a proposal where the people would vote for a congress to work on a new constitution, whereas in Guatemala the autogolpe was unpopular move and Serrano was forced to resign- the OAS did respond to the crises in