Peru’s Laboratory of Democracy
What Can the US Learn from Peru’s Democracy?
This is the first of Civic Way’s new series on other democracies. The author, Bruce Anderson, is an advisor to Civic Way. Bruce has an MBA and over 45 years of management experience with private entities like Price Waterhouse and public sector entities like the Cleveland Public Schools. He has managed a wide variety of projects with numerous other agencies, including colleges, schools, cities and counties. Bruce also served in the Peace Corps in Peru.
Civic Way’s Comparative Democracy Series
The world’s democracies come in many flavors. Some have strong central governments while others have federated structures. Some have an independent chief executive and some a parliamentary model. And they use different methods for allocating, electing and removing public officials.
Some of these variations are embodied in a nation’s legal framework, such as constitutions. Others spring from historical, cultural or demographic factors. In any event, learning about these differences, and the risks they were designed to address, can yield useful ideas for improving our own democracy.
An Introduction to Peru’s Democracy
Before 1992, Peru endured three decades of unrest. Military juntas overthrowing elected Presidents. Sporadic martial law. Insurgent terrorism. Sendero Luminoso’s Shining Path. The suspension of Congressional authority. The rise of drug traffickers.
Peru adopted a new constitution in 1992 and instituted it in 1993. Its hope was to restore political stability. In 2021, Peru held its most recent federal elections. While Peru has encountered some difficulties, its constitution and democracy remain.
Distinctive Features of Peru’s Democracy
Voting – Voting is strongly encouraged; registered voters who don’t vote are subject to nominal fines levied when they next apply for a government license (e.g., passport or business license).
Political parties – Peru has a lot of political parties; some are national in scope (e.g., Popular Action has been active since 1956), but many are organized around narrower political, regional or leadership priorities (e.g., the Green Alternative Ecologist Party).
Government structure – Peru’s governmental structure is federated with four levels. There is one federal government, 26 regional governments, 196 provinces and 1,838 districts. [The Lima Province effectively functions as its own region.]
Presidency – The President is elected by majority vote to one five-year term. If no candidate receives a majority of votes at Stage 1, the two with the most votes compete within 60 days at Stage 2; the one with a majority of votes becomes President. Consecutive terms are prohibited.
Federal legislature – There is a 130-member unicameral Congress serving 27 Constituencies (electoral districts), including the two largest—Lima and Callao—and perhaps the most unusual—Peruvians living abroad. Congress can approve legislation by majority vote but must send the approved legislation to the President for approval and enactment.
Legislative representation – Legislative seats are allocated to Constituencies using the D’Howat or Jefferson proportional method, a common method for helping ensure fair representation. With this method, a party’s candidates in a national election must win at least five percent of the total votes to earn a seat (lower threshold if the seven candidates with the most votes are from one party).
Removal – Peru’s Constitution provides a relatively easy process for impeaching the President and Congress. It resembles the common parliamentary “vote of no confidence” practice. After a hearing, removing a President or Congressperson only requires a majority vote of Congress .
Peru’s Current Political Landscape
In early 2021, before Peru held its national election, former President Vizcarra announced that he would not seek the presidency. In apparent retaliation for Vizcarra’s campaign against congressional corruption, Congress impeached the President and removed him from office.
As required by law, the Speaker of the House assumed the Presidency. However, after only five days of widespread protests and political chaos, the new President resigned. Congress then selected a new President to serve as a caretaker through the election period (and pandemic controls). Fortunately, those months were relatively peaceful.
In the April 11, 2021 Stage 1 (primary) presidential election there were 18 candidates, 12 from major parties and 6 from minor parties. One candidate withdrew and ten were disqualified or rejected for cause (e.g., inadequate documentation).
The top Stage 1 vote getter, with only 18.9 percent of the vote, was Pedro Castillo of the Free Peru Party (a party without seats in the prior Congress). The runner-up, with 13.4 percent of the votes, was Keiko Fujimori of the Popular Force (and First Lady of Peru during her father's administration). Together, the top two candidates won less than one-third of total Stage 1 votes cast.
In the June 6th Stage 2 (general) election, Castillo won 8,836,380 votes (50.1 percent) edging Fujimori by 44,000 votes. Both sides claimed voting irregularities, but little if any evidence materialized to support their claims. A spokesperson for the US State Department even referred to the Peru election as a “model of democracy.”
Castillo, a fringe candidate, entered office with a host of liabilities. First, he could hardly claim a broad mandate for change. In Stage 1, he won less than 20 percent of the vote. In Stage 2, he narrowly beat a candidate with a political corruption conviction and two prior presidential election losses (2011 and 2016).
Second, the new President represented a small socialist party that supported socialistic governments like Venezuela. Many feared that Castillo would try to seize private property. Many feared that he would imitate the Maduro-led government that drove an estimated 1 million Venezuelan refugees to flee to Peru (about 20 percent of Venezuela’s total refugees). Many adopted a “wait and see” attitude knowing that substantial change could not occur without Congressional support.
Finally, President Castillo brought limited experience managing a large organization. Some perceived him as a “puppet” of the party leader and reliant on others to select Ministry leaders and other key members of his administration. In its first year, corruption and the high Ministry Leadership turnover have reflected poorly on the President and his party. With little support in Congress, he has been embroiled in impeachment battles (he would have lost his job but for those abstaining).
Peru has so many parties that their fortunes can change dramatically in one election cycle. As new issues arise, small parties can embrace platforms that springboard them into the limelight. In the 2021 elections, four new parties with no prior Congressional seats emerged to seize a combined 62 seats (nearly half of all seats). At the same time, four other parties lost all their seats.
In Peru, the wide distribution of Congressional seats among so many parties can make it difficult to govern by consensus. After the 2021 election, 10 different parties were awarded seats in Congress. The party with the most seats (Fuerza Popular) earned 37 seats and the party with the fewest seats only one. This is no recipe for effective (let alone bold) governance.
Possible Lessons for the US
Peru’s democracy has some interesting features that may be relevant to the US. A quick summary:
Parties – An excessive number of political parties can pose hurdles for compromise, problem-solving and governance (also true for a two-party system as we have learned in the US).
Legislative representation – A proportional method for allocating Congressional seats can help ensure relatively fair representation for constituencies and reduce the risk of one-party dominance.
Legislative structure – A unicameral legislative model offers both promise (more expedited decision-making) and risk (hasty impeachments); so far, only one US state (Nebraska) employs it.
Voting – Fining registered voters for not voting would not likely be welcomed in the US, but it represents an interesting way to increase voter turnout.
Elections – A two-stage electoral process with an open primary could help dampen the prospects of extremist candidates but only if coupled with some form of ranked choice voting; the 60-day window between the two stages would certainly help reduce election costs.
Removal process – Peru’s impeachment process makes removing an elected official much easier than in the US, but, considering the unwarranted impeachment of President Vizcarra, that process may be too easy.
To perfect our union, we must perfect our democracy. To do so, we should not only learn from our own successes and setbacks, but the feats and failures of other nations. At the very least, proud democratic nations like Peru may offer us some interesting insights on democracy.