Brasília, April 22, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - Brazil has fewer democrats than the Latin American average. Of the 18 countries portrayed in the Report on Democracy in Latin America, released yesterday (21) by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Brazil occupies 15th place in terms of the population considered democratic. The only countries with a lower percentage are Ecuador, Paraguay, and Colombia. A mere 30.6% of Brazilians fit the category of "democrats." The Uruguayans were the most democratic (71.3%).

The study also indicates that 27% of Brazilians are opposed to democratic principles. The average of non-democrats in Latin America is 26.5%¨. The country with the smallest percentage of non-democrats was Costa Rica (9.5%), while Paraguay had the largest (62.8%). The report points out that Brazil contains a high proportion of people classified as ambivalent about democracy (42.4%).

According to the UNDP document, democrats are those who maintain a permanently positive attitude with respect to democracy in the three aspects that were investigated: support for representative institutions, support for democracy as a system of government, and support for restrictions on presidential power.

Non-democrats, on the other hand, present attitudes opposed to democratic precepts along the three dimensions that were examined. The "ambivalent" category wavers between opinions in favor of institutions like the Congress and political parties and attraction to authoritarian solutions centered around the President, who is considered above the law and empowered to shunt Congress aside in order to govern.

The report suggests that the ideal conditions for the future of democracy are present when the percentage of democrats attains the majority of the population, when they form the most active group in society, and when the ambivalent opinions are closer to those of the democrats than of the non-democrats.

Translator: David Silberstein