In this second issue of the Mexican Journal of Political and Social Science, New Age, we open the door to a reflection that, with the first analytical focus the Mexican case, then invites us to a fractal dimension which Latin America became a territory of analysis in which processes of continuity and change are evident in all its magnitude. Adapted from the source document.
Abstract This article examines whether changes in electoral participation contributed to electoral volatility in Latin America between 1945 and 2000. As a result of literacy voting requirements and authoritarian interludes that disenfranchised large portions of the population, new voters in Latin America probably had different political interests from the previous electorate and were not socialized to electoral politics. The article considers the hypothesis that the inclusion of new voters with different interests produces an immediate, short-term change in aggregate voting patterns, and a lack of socialization of new voters generates lingering instability in electoral behavior. Accounting for confounding factors, the analysis of legislative elections in 12 countries indicates that the expansion of the electorate temporarily disrupted voting patterns in Latin America but did not lead to long-run party system decay.
This essay interprets Baldwin as continuing the Socratic practice of self-examination and social criticism while also shifting his Socratic undertaking by charting the limits of examination created by the harsh effects of race and slavery in the United States. The author argues that Baldwin's Socratic practice inflects not only his essays-the center of previous analyses-but also his fictions. By transposing Socrates to issues of race in twentieth-century America and confronting the incoherent effects of a racialized society, James Baldwin thus carries forward and transforms a pivotal figure in the history of political thought. Adapted from the source document.
Although democratic regimes in Latin America since the early 1980s have been surprisingly durable, party systems in much of the region continue to experience very high levels of electoral instability. A critical juncture approach to institutional change suggests that variation in party system stability is related to the impact of market liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s on the programmatic alignment-or dealignment-of partisan competition. Market reforms that were adopted by conservative leaders and opposed by a major leftist rival aligned party systems programmatically, allowing societal opposition to be channeled into institutionalized forms of competition that were highly stable in the postadjustment era. By contrast, bait-and-switch reforms adopted by populist or leftist leaders were programmatically dealigning for party systems, leaving them vulnerable to highly destabilizing reactive sequences in the aftermath to the reform process-including mass social protests, the demise of historic conservative parties, and the outflanking of traditional populist or leftist parties by more radical, anti-neoliberal outsiders. The political dynamics of market-based economic adjustment thus heavily conditioned the ways in which party systems would process the postadjustment revival of populist and leftist alternatives in the region. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]
The electoral success of the left across Latin America has largely been interpreted as a backlash against globalization and a manifestation of anti-market voting of citizens increasingly frustrated with their experience of representative democracy. However, studies trying to test these propositions show rather inconclusive results and face the problem of translating objective economic conditions into observable individual perceptions. This article contends that theories of subjective well-being in psychology and economics can shed light on this left turn. In particular, life satisfaction, as a manifestation of experienced utility, can help explain the electoral outcomes observed throughout the region. The findings show that support for the left is higher the more unsatisfied voters are under a right incumbent.
AbstractThis article argues that civil-military relations should be conceptualized not only in terms of democratic civilian control but also for effectiveness in implementing a spectrum of roles and missions. It also argues that achieving effectiveness requires institutional development as a necessary but not sufficient condition. Currently in Latin America, the focus in civil-military relations remains exclusively on civilian control. While there is a growing awareness of the need for analysis beyond asserting control over the armed forces, so far nobody has proposed or adopted a broader analytical framework. This article proposes such a framework, and employs it to analyze differences among four major South American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. The explanation for the differences identified by use of the framework is found in the incentives of civilian elites in Chile and Colombia, who have recognized serious threats to national security and defense.
Direct foreign investment (DFI) made by China in Sub-Saharan Africa during the first decade of the 21st century has been higher than that in Latin America. The weak institutional situation of Sub-Saharan Africa facilitates the intervention of Chinese institutions. Weak institutions in receiving countries have the potential to become a non-conventional advantage or pull factor for China. A comparative analysis of how China has penetrated the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa and of Latin America brings to light the institutional causes for the differences between the flows of DFI to the two destinations. Adapted from the source document.
The long cycle of high commodity prices, driven by oil prices that also remain high, as does demand in leading industrial economies, finds oil-producing countries in Latin America in an expectant position. This article proposes to analyze recent trends in the political economy of the oil industry in the region and, based on case studies in Brazil and Argentina, examine how these global oil trends were dealt with and what were the principal measures taken by the sector over the last decade. Using these case studies, the article concludes with a detailed analysis on the outlook of the region in the medium term. Adapted from the source document.
We contrast the theoretical conceptions of representative democracy with the perceptions Latin American citizens have about democracy. We first analyze the theoretical conceptions of democracy and classify them as minimalist, procedural, result-driven and maximalist. We then apply those definitions to the LAPOP poll conducted in 2006 in 16 Latin American countries to associate the different theoretical conceptions to the survey questions that inquire on people's perception of democracy in Latin America. We evaluate which conceptions of democracy are more prevalent in the different countries. We analyze the relationship between economic development and economic conditions with the different conceptions of democracy included in the poll. We find the procedural conception of democracy to be more prevalent in the region. The other typologies of democracy vary according to institutional and economic conditions in each country. In countries with lower per capita GDP and more political restrictions, result-driven and maximalist typologies are more prevalent than in more developed countries. Finally, we analyze individual level data from all countries and show that people with higher income tend to favor minimalist and procedural definitions of democracy. Adapted from the source document.
Withdrawn on October 1, 2019. (See KnightScholar Policy for withdrawal of content.) Native Peoples of North America is intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective. As such, the text is organized around anthropological concepts such as language, kinship, marriage and family life, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts. Prehistoric, historic and contemporary information is presented. Each chapter begins with an example from the oral tradition that reflects the theme of the chapter. The text includes suggested readings, videos, and classroom activities. ; https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/oer-ost/1020/thumbnail.jpg
AbstractWhy do some protest movements in Latin America succeed in rolling back privatizations while others fail? This article argues that protests against privatizations have tended to succeed under two conditions. First, privatization's opponents form linkages (or "brokerage") across multiple sectors of society. Broad coalitions are more likely to achieve their goals, while groups acting alone, such as labor unions, are more easily defeated or ignored by governments. Second, civil rights are protected but political representation is weak. In that case, opponents have the legal right to protest, but are unlikely to have opportunities for communicating their concerns through formal institutions, which prompts them to channel their demands outside of existing political institutions. Using case examples and logistic regression, this study confirms these arguments and discusses the implications for democracy in the region.
The subcontracting and delocalization of productive activities that characterize the global capitalist economy are an attempt to reduce costs and exempt corporations from their responsibilities to labor by delegating production to other companies, regions, and countries and even to the workers themselves. Latin America is a prime destination for this corporate outsourcing. Outsourcing has increased deregulation and labor flexibility and introduced a model of high labor turnover and transience that creates fragmentation and precarious employment in the working class. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]
This paper investigates the relationship between International Monetary Fund (IMF)-sponsored economic programs and contentious collective action in Latin America from 1980 to 2007, hypothesizing a positive relationship between participation in IMF programs and the likelihood of social protest. Specifically, we suggest that people in recipient countries protest the unpopular IMF mandates not only because of the negative effects that orthodox economic policies have on their livelihood, but mainly because they perceive a loss of legitimacy and question the sovereignty of their domestic governments. That is, deciding to participate in an IMF program can make governments more prone to being perceived as caving in to the pressures of international agents, increasing the likelihood of contentious collective action. Results from two-stage negative binomial selection models provide strong statistical support for our main hypothesis, remaining robust to different specifications of the second-stage equation and other procedures that correct for potential statistical problems.
