This article applies a new simplified QCA procedure to identify conditions that promote the survival of the "third wave" democracies in South America. Our results show that crucial factors in their durability were the conditions relating to legitimacy, and in particular the memory of repression carried out under the previous authoritarian regimes. In addition, in contrast to certain other more solidly established democracies in the region that were founded during previous waves of democracy, the newest democratic regimes appear to be quite original. Whereas institutional and economic conditions (a strong, cohesive partisan system, the signing of political agreements, and even economic development) were fundamental to explaining the durability of the first democracies, these factors only played a minor role in third wave democracies.