With the beginning of the new millennium and especially since the era of Rafael Correa and Evo Morales in Ecuador and Bolivia the political landscape in these two countries has changed significantly. And the democratic "left turn" challenges German politics. On the one hand Germany openly supports democracy promotion in the world, on the other hand the development in Ecuador and Bolivia differ a lot from the German understanding of the "right" democracy and the "right" economic model. Until now, Germany has stuck to the policy of general support and accompanies the ongoing transformation of democracy critically, but in a constructive way.
In HSFK Report No. 2/2010 Demokratieförderung als Suchprozess: Die Bolivien- und Ecuadorpolitik Deutschlands in Zeiten demokratischer Revolutionen (Democracy Promotion as a Search Process: The German Policy toward Bolivia and Ecuador in Times of Democratic Revolutions) Jonas Wolff argues in favour of this pragmatical "muddling through", since polarisation might easily lead to conflict escalation.