Democracy is a too complex concept to be summarized in a single number that captures only electoral and/or liberal aspects. Elections and checks and balances are not enough to define a consolidated democratic regime; as a consequence, the causes of democratic strength literature has traditionally highlighted are biased towards these aspects.
This paper aims to analyze the different paths towards a full democracy, a regime that has strong liberal and electoral, but also deliberative, participatory and egalitarian components; if one of these democratic elements lacks, it's not a full democracy. Hence, I focus on institutional, socioeconomic, historical and political culture factors, and especially on the role of political elites’ attitudes, radicalism and support for democracy, to get to explain what contributes to full democracy in Latin America.