Lost in Transition: Explaining Authoritarianism in Peru

Abstract

International reports by human rights organizations coincide that the government of Dina Boluarte in Peru has responded to social mobilization with disproportionate actions by public forces. Whereas recent scholarship explains the rising authoritarianism in the country to the weakness of political actors, this article provides a different interpretation by focusing on the political and economic legacies of the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000). Post-Fujimori governments have been unable to complete a double transition: a transition to consolidate democracy and a transition to advance towards a postconflict society. Rather, they have empowered economic elites and have deepened stigmatization and repression of social mobilization. To understand current authoritarianism, it is important to identify where concrete power resides and how state practices respond to the influence and needs of powerful actors.