Democracy in Ecuador

This essay focuses on determining the democracy of Ecuador and the probability of the level of democracy in Ecuador in the next three years. It discusses the governance of Rafael Correa, the changes brought by President Moreno, and the improvements in the condition of Ecuador's democracy.

Running head: DEMOCRACY IN ECUADOR
Democracy in Ecuador
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

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As opined by Wolff, Spanger and Puhle (2013), freedom is the kind of political
ideology that provides equal rights to every citizen of the country. It helps in the protection of
the human rights of the people and allows every single citizen to choose a representative for
their country on their own with complete freedom. However, it is a system of rules and norms
by the law and not by the citizens (Habermas 2015). According to Martínez (2016),
democracy has its essential elements which are to be strictly applied in the prospect of
ensuring an unbiased democracy in a country. The vital components are determined as –
accountability of the selected official towards the citizens, to follow the rule of law which
implies that not even the elected official is above the law, equality, active participation of
every citizen in the political and civic life, transparency in the government rules and
regulations, regular fair elections, protection of human rights, accepting the result of the vote
and not forcing the citizens or bribing them and not abusing the power in the hands of the
elected official. In this connection, this essay focuses on determining the democracy of
Ecuador and the probability of the level of democracy in Ecuador in the next three years.
As stated by Shade (2015), Ecuador is an underdeveloped democratic country. The
author claimed that the leftist government, Rafael Correa had been governing the country
since 2007 (Becker 2013). The restrictions imposed by the former president Rafael Correa on
the civil and media society had limited the office’s ability to allow external funding and
indulging into press releases (De la Torre 2013). In the initial period of his governing Correa
gained high popularity and was elected thrice till decade (2007-2017). During his second
period of governing his stability in Ecuador started to decline. The government revenues had
decreased due to the earthquake that took place in April 2016 and had left 651 people dead,
over 4000 injured and displacement of around 30000 people (Ye et al. 2016). The
government property exceeded a loss of approximately $3.3 billion, and Correa had
implemented a non- strategic budget tightening system to solve the same which created

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enormous political tensions (Cordero-Reyes 2017). This resulted in the decline of his
approval by a level of 35% in the mid of 2016. Nevertheless, Correa was also accused of
oppressing freedom of the press, restricting freedom of assembly and association and even
the independence of the judiciary (Conaghan 2016). Protests started diverging from several
indigenous groups, citizens and environmentalists towards Correa and also the relation
between Ecuador and the United States had strained under the governance of Correa.
However, when the power came into the hands of a new administration in 2017, the elected
official began to roll back those restrictions as reverse Correa-era policies (Sanchez-Sibony
2017).
The new policies veered away from the old systems used by Correa as soon as it came
into power. The new governing president Moreno called a national referendum on February
4, 2018 (Rogatyuk 2018). He openly challenged few of the efforts of Correa governments to
centralise power, abolishing of unclear re-election and limiting tenure to two terms which
included the turn back that judiciary will constitute of only presidential supporters, and
creating limits to mining in indigenous and protected areas. These measures implemented by
the new governing party won with greater than 60% voter approval. However, President
Moreno had to face some economic and governing challenges to improve the condition of the
refraining situation of democracy in Ecuador, and he was successful in doing the same.
According to the survey done on World Bank, it was examined that the percentage of GDP in
the trade services started to decline since 2015 with a level of 5.6% from 5.8% in 2015 and
exceeding to 5.3% in 2016 under the governance of Correa (Databank.worldbank.org 2019).
However, as soon as the governance turned into the hands of Moreno, a slight increment to
the GDP was examined, which was 5.4% in the year 2017. As opined by the Worlds Value
Survey Wave 6: 2010-2014, when surveyed a question to the general citizens about the
importance of politics in their day-to-day life only 21.1% of the public gave a positive

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response towards its role in their lives (Worldvaluessurvey.org 2014). This indicates the
ineffectiveness of the government policies implemented by Rafael Correa during his
governance period in Ecuador. However, claimed by the recent article- Democracy in
Retreat- Freedom in the World 2019; it was examined that lights shined in the field of
democracy improvements in many individual countries (Freedomhouse.org 2019). One of
those remarkable improvements was seen in Ecuador. The survey claimed that there was an
enduring appeal in the democracy level of Ecuador, withholding the accountability of the
current leader of the country who created better conditions to provide a better life to the
ordinary people.
From these changes and improvements that have been seen since 2017, after a shift in
the governance in Ecuador it is expected that in the upcoming years the country is likely to
expand more in the sector and scope of democracy (Pyatakov 2017). In this connection, the
study clearly states that the new policies implemented by President Moreno is leading and
heading towards the betterment of the democracy and the level of democracy seems powerful
and promising in the light of Ecuador’s future (Tym 2017). This proves that the winning of
the new governance in the hands of President Moreno since May 24, 2017, was the perfect
decision in the general election of Ecuador as President Moreno promises to focus on
providing equal rights to every citizen of the country and that every eligible citizen will have
equal and active participation in their political and civic life. According to the National
Electoral Council, EIU; it was claimed that the results of the economic conditions had
improved by February 4, 2018 (Beittel 2013). The referendum proposals statistical data put
forward showed that proper political norms were implemented on the people guilty of a
crime, corruption level in individuals decreased, a ban on indefinite re-elections were
imposed, Mining was prohibited in the urban and indigenous areas, the protection area of
Yasuni National Park was expanded. Within just a matter of a few months, that Moreno won

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the presidency of Ecuador, he started reversing the policies of ex-president Correa and
brought significant changes in the condition of Ecuador’s democracy. Moreno studied the
situation of disabled people in Ecuador and increased the funding and budget for assisting the
disabled people (Guaipatin and Humphreys 2014). Currently, Ecuador serves in supporting
over 600,000 disabled people in their country. Furthermore, as opined by The State
Department in the survey of Trafficking in Persons Report, that Ecuador is a source-
destination country where men, women, and children are subjected to sex trafficking and
forced labour (Akee et al. 2014). Ecuador had been reported with several cases of sex
trafficking and domestic violence. However, Moreno investigated all these criminal activities
and implemented new laws in favour of ordinary people. He assured similar lawful actions
and punishment in terms of such illegal activities to every person identified as a criminal. The
minors involved in sexual crimes were to be imposed with the same punishment as the major
ones, and the limitations of punishment to their criminal offence were eliminated. The terms
of the relation between the U.S. and Ecuador also shifted its direction and highlighted a
difference which enrolled during the time of Correa’s presidency (Romero, Hodgson and
Gómez 2018). This happened in the connection that the U.S. President Mike Pence visited
Ecuador in June 2018 and had put forward a discussion of expanding U.S security and
commercial ties with Ecuador. Not only this, but Mike Pence also wished to put consideration
of a future bilateral agreement between the two countries. Under the governance of Moreno,
these significant changes in the laws and policies of protecting and supporting equal human
rights and also the improvement of Ecuador’s relationship with the United States was a clear
cut proof that Ecuador is slowly and gradually into transforming for good.
As promised by President Moreno, the study indicates that he is succeeding towards
fulfilling the democracy indicator of Rule by People by implementing policies of the people,
by the people and for the people (De la Torre 2018). The pieces of evidence in the study

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suggests that Moreno is a thoughtful and decent human being who is committed and
dedicated towards liberation Ecuador from a country of underdeveloped democracy and a
source of corruption to a state of embraced capitalism and free of corruption. Thus, these
efficiency improvements in just a matter of two years under the presidency of Moreno, it is a
clear proof that Ecuador is in the process of delicate transition in its future determination and
the coming years, Ecuador would be counted on one of the top listed countries in the context
of democracy. The pieces of evidence claims that the way the current President of Ecuador is
heading towards struggling for the soul democracy of Ecuador, that time is not away when it
would achieve the same (Gerlach 2017). Lenin Moreno has promised to build an Ecuador
without Barriers in the future years and he is implementing the same by promoting laws and
policies in favour of the common people which in turn is satisfying the essential elements of
democracy and this provides to a conclusion that an unbiased, non-corrupted and democratic
Ecuador is on its way (Rowe et al. 2018).
To summarise, democracy is an essential factor in the ideology of the political
environment of any country that satisfies the human perks of rights and individuality. The
international base of countries should focus on fulfilling the essential elements of democracy
to promote equal rights and stability to its ordinary citizens. In this connection, with the help
of the above shreds of evidence, it is clear that Ecuador is heading towards the improvement
of its democracy. As a result of this, the study tends to propose that in the future years,
Ecuador would turn from an underdeveloped democratic country to a developed democratic
one.

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