PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD

CATOLICA DEL ECUADOR

INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

The impact of the 1996-2006 Ecuadorian political crisis,

in the reconstruction of the Ecuadorian political Culture

MATHIAS SEBASTIAS ERAZO VILLAMARIN

FCLL – LEAI

9 DE FEBRERO DEL 2017

 The impact of the 1996-2006 Ecuadorian political crisis,
in the reconstruction of the Ecuadorian political Culture

The 1996-2006 Ecuadorian political crisis and the various policies which
were applied by the different governments of this period of time, caused a
constant reconstruction of the country’s political culture. During the years 1996
to 2006, not only did the Republic of Ecuador go through seven distinct
mandates but none of them were able to finish their entire presidential period of
four years. These ten years of the Ecuadorian history were essential for the
reconstruction of this country’s political culture, which according to Almond and
Verba is the distribution of patterns of orientation among all members of the
state towards political objects and a relevant factor that determines how the
future of the state’s democracy unfolds. (1963)

The ineptitude which characterized the mandates of the different

politicians during these ten years and the chaotic transitions of mandate from
side to side of the political spectrum, change the people’s perspective of the
government (Lauderbaugh; 2012). They no longer had positive evaluations of the
political authorities but they started questioning their political trust towards
politicians, party identification, and political efficacy. Therefore they still
believed in democratic values but they were disappointed due to the government
practices. (Denk, T. Christensen, H & Bergh, 2015) These critical citizens had a
different approach to the government, they had much more political interest and
the willing to get involved in political affairs.

On February fifth of 1997, during the presidency of Abdala Bucaram

leader of the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party, syndicates, business groups, social
organizations and pressure groups, such as El Frente Unido de Trabajadores,
(FUT) CONAIE, El Movimiento Político Femenino, among others, protested in
both conventional and nonconventional activities, being the former ones, the
most practiced. Once the military withdraw its support from the government and
former President Bucaram was considered mentally incapable of govern by the
Ecuadorian Congress, he was impeached and sent into exile in Panama
(Lauderbaugh; 2012). In this example, the critical role played by the people had
positive effects on the following years but most importantly on the country’s
democracy.

After being elected as President of the Republic in 1997 by the National

Congress, public institution where he first was president, Fabian Alarcon,
member of the party: (FRA) Alfarist Radical Front; brought a fragile period of
calm to the country. (Echeverria; 2006) Even though this did not solve the
political crisis in Ecuador, it led to the development of a different political
subculture among people, called stealth citizens. This kind of actors presented a
higher level of trust in the political actors and their competence of represent
them. On the other hand, though stealth citizens were not exactly glad with the
decisions of the Alarcon’s mandate, they had a positive orientation towards it,
even if this means that they must be less involved on the country’s political
affairs. (Hibbing, Theism-Morse; 2002)

On the elections of 1998, the overwhelming number of candidates for the

presidency brought a sense of hope to the country’s political culture.
Unfortunately, people were not prepared for what was going to become one of
the toughest moments of the Ecuadorian history. Jamil Mahuad, member of the
party, Popular Democracy, (DP) won the elections and started his mandate,
which had to deal with the economical rescission of the oil price drop.
(Lauderbaugh; 2012) At that time the political culture was dominated by what
Almond and Verba (1965) defined as disenchanted citizens. This kind of
political subculture have a negative view towards the political system, however,
they also tend to have a passive role on the political participation. Unlike the
critical citizens, the disenchanted ones do not believe that their participation have
vast importance on the political affairs.

Eventually, after former President Mahuad had applied some of his

policies, the cost of various services, like electricity, fossil fuels and public
transportation, increased exorbitantly. Three of the biggest banks filed for
bankruptcy and finally the Feriado Bancario came. Most of the people’s savings
end up in the pockets of bank owners and directors, who then left the country.
Massive immigration, high degrees of unemployment and inflation and poverty
among middle and low income citizens, were the consequences of the Feriado
Bancario. (Larrea, 2004) According to Hay (2007) it is not possible to have both
disenchanted and critical citizens living in a society, due to the fact that the
disenchantment of people, caused by the government ineptitude and its poor
decision-making process, might represent a serious trial to the legitimacy and
stability of the democratic system. Therefore, it is the critical citizens that raised
again, dominating the political culture during this period.

Despite the declaration of emergency state and the mobilization of 30,000

military troops in order to assure the law and order, the military forces did no
longer support former President Mahuad’s mandate. This was the reason why on
January fifteenth, critical citizens, this time the CONAIE (Ecuadorians
Indigenous Nationalities Confederation) went all the way to the capital to protest.
It was a matter of time for other pressure groups to join them and so they did.
Five days later employees from the company Petroecuador, student groups and
syndicates had the administrative buildings surrounded. The critical citizens’
action was ones again an essential actor of the history of Ecuador. (Lauderbaugh;
2012)

On the following years, the Ecuadorian political culture has a similar

approach with the presidency of Gustavo Noboa, who was the former Vice-
president in the mandate of Mahuad who in the year 2000 asked for political
asylum to Chilean authorities. In order to increase his legitimacy, former
President Gustavo Noboa revealed corruption cases and promised accountability
of his mandate to the people. Similar measures were taken by the government of
Fabian Alarcon, who also declared corruption actions that took place on the
presidency of Bucaram, it is worth say that one can appreciate this measures in
the 2007 presidency of Alfredo Palacios as well. (Echeverria; 2006) On the
other hand the mandate of Lucio Gutierrez had similarities with the one of
Bucaram, where the political crisis consequences were the trigger of the raising
of critical citizens, that with the name of Los Forajidos, (the outlaws) wrote a
new period of the Ecuadorian politics.
 The1996-2006 Ecuadorian political crisis had a great impact on the
values and beliefs that the people adopted at that specific period of time. The
reckless and inefficient governments, along with their harmful decisions for the
country, encouraged the Ecuadorian civil society to reconstruct their way to
participate and developed an additional characteristic that was not necessary used
before, critical thinking. The impact of the similar patterns that the Ecuadorian
political history went through from 1996 to 2006, show that in times of crisis the
political culture of Ecuador can be extremely volatile and how transcendental
was its reconstruction during the period of 1996 to 2006.

References

Books:

Tribunal Supremo Electoral. (1981) Principios Ideologicos y Planes de

Gobierno, de los partidos políticos de la República del Ecuador. Quito,
Ecuador: Editorial Estatal.

Echeverria, J. (2006) El Desafio Constitucional, crisis institucional y proceso

politico en el Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador. Ediciones ABYA-YALA.

Lauderbaugh, G. (2012) Historia Politica del Ecuador. Quito Ecuador. Editorial

CODEU.

Araujo, M. (1998) Gobernabilidad Durante la Crisis y Politicas de Ajustes.

Quito, Ecuador. Editorial CORDES

E-books:

Almond, G. Verba, S. (1963) The civic culture—political attitudes and

democracy in five nations. Boston. Retrieved from
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/tpavone/files/almond_verb
a-the_civic_culture_revisited_summary.pdf

Almond, G. Verba, S. (1965) Toronto: Little, Brown and Company. Retrieved

from https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?
bi=19395921751&searchurl=tn%3Dthe%2Bcivic%2Bculture%26sortby
%3D17%26an%3Dalmond

Bustamante, F. (2000) La cultura política y ciudadanía en el Ecuador. Retrieved

from http://www.flacso.org.ec/docs/antdembustamante.pdf
Denk, T. Christensen, H & Bergh, D. (2015) The Composition of Political
Culture—A Study of 25 European Democracies. Retrieved from
file:///C:/Users/Mathy!/Downloads/out%20(1).pdf

Hay, C. (2007) Why we hate politics. Retrieved from

http://www.crickcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Why-we-hate-
politics-final.pdf

Hibbing, J. Theiss-Morse E. (2002) Stealth democracy—Americans’ beliefs

about how government should work. New York. Retrieved from:
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Inglehart, R. Welzel, W. (2005) Modernization, cultural change, and democracy

—the human development sequence. Retrieved from
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Larrea, C. (2004). Dolarización y desarrollo humano en Ecuador. Iconos, 19

(1), Recuperado de http://www.flacso.org.ec/docs/larrea19.pdf

Norris, P. (2011) Democratic deficit, critical citizens revisited. Retrieved from

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Parga, J. (1999) CULTURA POLITICA EN LA SOCIEDAD ECUATORIANA.

Retrieved from http://www.flacsoandes.edu.ec/libros/digital/41102.pdf

Stoker, G. (2010) The rise of political disenchantment. Retrieved from

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