Suchergebnisse

Hidden behind a number of economic crises in the mid- to late 1990s-including Argentina's headline-grabbing monetary and political upheaval-is that fact that Latin American economies have, generally speaking, improved dramatically in recent years. Their success has been due, in large part, to macroeconomic reforms, and this book brings together prominent economists and policymakers to assess a decade of such policy shifts, highlighting both the many success stories and the areas in which further work is needed. Contributors offer both case studies of individual countries and regional overviews

'Politics, Society, and Democracy: Latin America' edited by Scott Mainwaring and Arturo Valenzuela is reviewed.

Large cities in the world confront an interesting dilemma: more democracy and therefore fragmentation of their governments into small agencies, or better performance in an integrated world system of cities and therefore better co-ordination of government functions. Fragmentation or co-ordination? 'Relevance of Metropolitan Government' explores this dilemma through a detailed study of two cities in Latin America: Caracas in Venezuela, and Monterrey in Mexico. The book also introduces a method to evaluate co-ordination arrangements and gives recommendations to deal with the double question of democracy and performance faced by cities in an integrated world. In the first chapters the book sets up a theoretical framework to discuss issues of metropolitan government in the case studies Caracas and Monterrey. Chapter 2 deals with the insertion of the study within the contemporary debates about metropolitan government and metropolitan governance. In this chapter the choice for the analysis methods and the case studies is made clear. Chapter 3 deals with the specific profiles of Caracas and Monterrey, which are presented as representative cases of capital cities and export cities in Latin America. Chapter 4 through 7 review the co-ordination levels of a pair of metropolitan functions (physical planning and urban public transport) in these cities. This part of the study is based on empirical data, ranging form interviews and document analysis made in place in these Latin American cities. Chapter 4 and 5 are dedicated to Caracas and chapters 6 and 7 to Monterrey. On chapter 8 conclusions of the study are drawn in regard to the basic statements and research made of the first part of the book. The main findings are, the existence and resilience of good co-ordination efforts in both of the case studies, the need for more political support for metropolitan government implementation and the existence of sensible bottlenecks—mainly political—in the establishment or progress of government reform.

AbstractAre international labor rights campaigns making a difference in Latin America? This article reveals that Dominican policymakers and bureaucrats are responding to foreign pressure by redoubling their commitment to a distinctively Franco-Iberian model of labor law enforcement, in which skilled labor inspectors use their discretion to balance society's demand for protection with the economy's need for efficiency. In so doing, they provide an alternative to traditional collective bargaining practices—which at least partly decouples both the intensity of the enforcement effort and the degree of worker protection from the level of unionization—and an example for the rest of the region. The article therefore concludes by reconsidering the Central American experience in light of the Dominican findings and discussing their joint implications for our understanding of administrative reform, industrial relations, and globalization, not only in the so-called CAFTA countries but in Latin America more generally.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Chicana/o Radicalism, Transnational Organizing, and Social Movements in Latin America -- Chapter One. Cartographies of the Chicana/o Left -- Chapter Two. Mexico, Anticommunism, and the Chicana/o Movement -- Chapter Three. Nuevo Teatro Popular across the Américas -- Chapter Four. "Somos uno porque América es una": Quinto Festival de Teatro Chicano/Primer Encuentro Latino Americano de Teatro -- Chapter Five. "Por la reunificación de los Pueblos Libres de América en su Lucha por el Socialismo": Mexican Maoists, Chicana/o Revolutionaries, and the Dirty War in Mexico -- Chapter Six. Puente de Cristal (Crystal Bridge): Magdalena Mora, the 1975 Tolteca Strike, and Insurgent Feminism -- Epilogue. Solidarity/Beyond Solidarity -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

AbstractThe article analyzes and compares the dynamics of business-government relations in Bolivia and Ecuador during the presidencies of Evo Morales and Rafael Correa. It specifically traces the shift from confrontation to rapprochement to a fairly stable pattern of negotiation and dialogue that characterizes the two governments' interaction with core business elites. Drawing on the structural and instrumental power framework developed by Tasha Fairfield, it proposes an explanation that accounts for this overall shift as well as for the main differences between the two countries. In a nutshell, the article argues that the business elites' response to a severe loss of instrumental power and the governments' response to the persistent structural power of business combined to cause the shift toward negotiation and dialogue. The article also probes the plausibility of this power-based explanation by briefly comparing the two cases with other left-of-center governments in the region.