With few exceptions, Latin American democracies suffer from severe institutional weaknesses, growing poverty and inequality, and a host of other ills that come with spotty economic performance. The region's political systems, meanwhile, seem overmatched. They do not look as if they can make headway in solving these crippling problems. The five Andean nations--Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela--show especially clear signs of this weakness. Today they still enjoy formally democratic and representative institutions, but if they stay on their present path, the return of some form of populist authoritarian politics may be only a matter of time.