Illiberal Patria

The democratic rise to power of the movement called the “Citizens’ Revolution” in Ecuador has challenged earlier conceptions of what a democracy should look like. Its leader, Rafael Correa, has run a campaign against the previous system of constitutional liberalism in Ecuador and has done much to fight what he considers the symptoms of the previous system: poverty and inequality. While Correa's government has had success in creating social progress, his movement has also dramatically increased the power of the central government in Ecuador. This has struck many scholars as dangerous. The term "Illiberal Democracy" has been used to describe Ecuador as a democracy moving in the wrong direction, away from an objective standard of perfect democratic participation. In this thesis I argue that this assumption is misapplied to Ecuador. In cases like Ecuador, expansion of state power may be necessary to overcome structural impediments to democratic participation.