The ten-year rule of President Rafael Correa in Ecuador has led to a significant change in the political life of this country. Correism, or the concept and the practice of governance implemented by R. Correa is an excellent starting point to examine the relationship between populism and democracy and to identify factors deforming the functioning of democratic systems today – not only in the Latin American context.
In this article, I try to answer the following questions: is populism only a threat to democracy, and can the rule of R. Correa be regarded as an autocracy? In the analysis, I use the ‘matrix’ developed by Levitsky and Ziblatt in 2018 to identify the authoritarian behaviour of political leaders.
I conclude that while Correism was a political strategy deforming the democratic system of governance in Ecuador, it contributed to the stabilisation of political life in this country (despite the polarisation of the political scene), and populism was an indispensable tool for gaining and maintaining power by R Correa in this country between 2007 and 2017.
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