Democracy, social dualism, and the emergence of the bi-facial state

The paper examines the tension between liberal democracy and the dualizing societies in which the new democracies in Latin America and Central / Eastern Europe have been established. Most of these societies are divided into a civic pole, whose members are capable of autonomous articulation of interests and values, and therefore susceptible of independent organization; and a marginal pole, made up of the excluded or dependent segments of society. In this second sector, autonomous organization is harder to sustain. The paper makes two claims. First, that there is an elective affinity between this type of society and a bi-facial state, whose forms of articulation with society will vary: exchange of demands and supports for policies in relation to the civic pole, and exclusion, state corporatism and clientelism in relation to the marginal one. Second, this bi-facial state is the equilibrium regime of dualized societies. The mechanism that produces this outcome is the set of incentives and constraints that regulate the behavior of politicians, government officials and the major social groups in transitional societies. Finally, I discuss potential countervailing forces.