Excerpt from back cover - Economic dynamism has helped nurture political decentralization throughout Latin America as deregulation, privatization, and individual enterprise have proven much more compatible with democratic than authoritarian forms of government. Reducing the regulatory role of government through elimination of trade barriers and privatization leaves less room, by definition, for government control over society, spurring democracy and greater local or individual empowerment. Even in times of crisis, such as in Chile in the early 1980s and in Mexico at the end of 1994, democratic forces have held firm and sustained the market liberalization policies which had been put in place.