The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which, through its Observers Missions (OM-OAS), the Organization of American States (OAS) has been institutionalizing practices of representative democracy in the Inter-American system. By looking at the Peruvian elections of the year 2000, the article demonstrates the limitations of democratic principles when they are confronted with the principle of nonintervention that has been maintained through the defensive action of middle-sized powers (such as Brazil) and small State actors. Organizations such as the OAS have been incorporating democracy into their agenda with an intensity that is uncommon to their diplomatic history. The article concludes that such an explicitation of democracy on the part of the OAS does not always breed positive results. There a number of constraints present, such as the institutionalization of monitoring procedures, the political and economic interests of the regional powers and the always tricky problem of the boundaries between monitoring and nonintervention in internal affairs of member countries.
Organization of American States; democracy; nonintervention; observers' missions