THE DEMOCRATIC EUPHORIA THAT SWEPT LATIN AMERICA TWO DECADES AGO HAS PASSED. THE SAME CITIZENS, WHO ONLY TEN YEARS AGO THREW OUT AUTHORITARIAN MILITARY RULERS, HAVE BEGUN TO EMBRACE A HOST OF NEW LEADERS, LESS COMMITTED TO THE NICETIES OF DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES. THESE LEADERS, NEVERTHELESS, ARE COMMITTED TO GOOD GOVERNANCE, WEEDING OUT CORRUPTION, AND ADDRESSING POVERTY AND INEQUALITY. LATIN AMERICA'S EMBRACE OF THEIR NEW RULERS RAISES QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE COST THAT SOCIETY WILL PAY, AND WHAT KIND OF DEMOCRACY WILL BE IN PLACE IN THE REGION AT THE END OF THE COMING DECADE.
Despite religious differences among Indian & Pakistani immigrants (Hindus, Sikhs, & Muslims), they are in most ways a single diasporic population with shared aesthetic, linguistic, & cultural traditions & memories of British colonialism. The separate forces at work to weaken disaporic engagement with the mother countries for the three religious groups are discussed. Canada & US contexts support different kinds of intellectual, aesthetic, & political coalitions. However, in both places, hybrid cultural arenas that are intentional & transnational, but not necessarily diasporic in nature, exist. It is argued that the diasporic nature of the Pakistani & Indian communities in North America dissolves as a result of Asian American & Muslim American politics, & that their aesthetic representations & their political activities are mutually constitutive, not coincidental. 73 References. M. Pflum
An introduction to The Church at the Grassroots in Latin America focuses on the evolution of the progressive church from a formidable popular movement to the margins of a religious movement more concerned with dogma than societal transformation. It is argued that the Catholic Left's decline reflects changes in the general society during the so-called postauthoritarian period of the last decade. The rise & fall of the progressive church are traced, noting pessimistic referrals to the death of "people's Catholicism" in the recent literature. Contributors focus more on the subtle contributions of the progressive church to social change at the grassroots level, such as the legacy of an enhanced ability to organize & fight for democratic change. The essays document the political, social, & cultural changes generated by the progressive intervention & show how the project has assumed different forms in varying circumstances. A synopsis of each chapter is included. 36 References. J. Lindroth
The demise of the Cold War has produced not an "End of History" but a "New World Disorder," which may well become more tumultuous in the decades ahead. Thus, it is crucial at this turn of the millennium to reconsider the prospects for regional security, the challenges that both new and old dangers may pose to U.S. interests, and the kind of strategy and policies that might enable the United States to both better cope with current problems and head off those that are just over the horizon. The author first analyzes U.S. security interests in Latin America, then goes on to survey the primary challenges to those interests, and how well U.S. strategy and policy are equipped to cope with them. He suggests how the security environment is likely to change over the next quarter century, both in terms of the new dangers that may arise and the evolution of problems that already exist. His conclusion that we are not strategically equipped to face the future is a disturbing one, for Latin America's importance to the United States is growing fast even as our attention is flagging. Will we have the insight to recognize our own interests, the will to commit sufficient resources to attain them, and the intellectual wherewithal to relate our means to our ends? ; https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1138/thumbnail.jpg
United States economic assistance programs in Latin America have been frequently restructured since the 1960s. This volume examines the evolution of US aid to the region, describes and explains US aid policy towards Latin America, and accounts for changes in the aid regime since 1960. While US aid policy typically reflects developmental, political and economic motivations, the relative weight of each motive can only be understood through close analysis of the broader historical context. In conclusion, the book reviews the most pressing social and economic problems in Latin America, and advances a set of policy recommendations for reforming United States assistance policy in the 21st century. [From amazon.com] ; https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/politicalscience_geography_books/1004/thumbnail.jpg
This article emphasizes the key role of labor in shaping trends & patterns of pica change. It argues that during the interwar period, continental Latin America experienced common trends in several areas, including a general upsurge in labor unrest, deepening conflicts among elites, implementation of new modes of state regulation, & a disruption of prevailing trade arrangements within the world economy, all of which were accompanied by a brief but significant wave of democratization in the 1920s. Noting that these trends were unevenly distributed through the region (particularly after the 1930s), four patterns of political arrangements (repressive dictatorships, party competition, corporatist nationalism, & unstable labor politics) are abstracted. The article uses two principal variables (relative weight of the middle & working classes & degree of elite cohesion/fragmentation) to explain these patterns of political change. Overall, the article suggests that the relative strength of labor & subordinate groups was key to shifts away from repressive dictatorship, while the degree of convergence among elites was significant in shaping political outcomes, but not in promoting democratic outcomes. 87 References. Adapted from the source document.
This paper surveys the impact of geopolitical thinking as applied to issues of territory in Latin America, with special emphasis on its Southern Cone. The relevance of geopolitics is examined as an ideological doctrine & as a normative framework to understand territorial changes, territorial conflicts that have not escalated into fully fledged wars, & rare cases of actual wars fought in the twentieth century in South America. I question the changing meaning of geopolitical doctrines following the "third wave" of democratization in Latin America by suggesting more "positive" avenues for the former pernicious implications of geopolitical doctrines, including economic development & regional integration. Finally, I juxtapose "conventional" geopolitics with more recent ideas of "critical" geopolitics & its potential implementation in the region. Adapted from the source document.
This article demonstrates that there are three distinct divisions in terms of individualism throughout the whole of North America. In the first division, the national level, there are two distinct groups; Canada & the US are more individualistic countries, while Mexico is less so. There are three groups in the second division -- the level of national cultures -- noted here in ascending order of individualism: Mexico, French-speaking Quebec, & English-speaking Canada & the US together. The third division encompasses the global level of cultures & indicates two groups: Anglo-Saxons (English-speaking Canadians & US citizens) & Latins (Mexicans & Quebeckers). The database analyzed for this research is the subsample for North America of the World Values survey, 1982-1983, analyzed combining binary logic, statistics applied to cross-tabulation tables, the theory of combinations, & multiple logistic regression. 4 Figures, 23 References. Adapted from the source document.
Affinity between Marxism & Surrealism in Europe was short-lived, confined largely to the decade of 1925-1935. In Latin America, Surrealism & one of its outgrowths, magical realism, have enjoyed a much longer & more fruitful relationship with Marxism. The principle of montage -- the production of shocks by placing everyday images in unexpected contexts -- is central to both Surrealism & magical realism. In Latin America, the montage was appealing not because it revealed the contradictions of modern capitalist society, but because it demonstrated that both the oppression of the strong & the hope of the weak were the result of a dialectic yet unitary historical process. Prominent Latin American poets, thinkers, & writers including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, & Cesar Vallejo, have used montage in this sense with influential & long lasting results. K. A. Larsen
A review essay on books by (1) Julia Buxton & Nicola Phillips, (Eds) Developments in Latin American Political Economy. States, Markets and Actors (Manchester U Press, Manchester, 1999); (2) Geraldine Lievesley, Democracy in Latin America. Mobilization, Power and the Search for a New Politics (Manchester U Press, Manchester, 1999); & (3) Jorge I. Dominguez & Alejandro Poire, (Eds) Toward Mexico's Democratization. Parties, Campaigns, Elections, and Public Opinion (Routledge, New York & London, 1999). While flagrantly authoritarian rule has abated in Latin America, it has often been replaced by semidemocratic regimes in which the national leader relies on authoritarian tactics & democratic institutions are bypassed or downgraded. In these regimes, there has been movement away from fully participatory democracy, equality, & state accountability, accompanied by the erosion of judicial & civil rights. The result has been a vicious cycle of inegalitarian policies, growing poverty, & social problems. Local class structures are strongly linked to Latin America's subordinate integration into the world economy. This means that it will be difficult to achieve anything more than nominally procedural democracies. Attempts to create more participatory forms of democracy, via working-class or peasant-led revolution, have failed thus far. Three key, interlinked aspects are important in understanding the limitations of Latin America's democratization: (A) the marketization & privatization of previously statist economies; (B) the institutional question of the role of the national leader; & (C) the degree of social polarization. A. Funderburg
Der Aufsatz beschreibt die internationalen Abkommen und Gesetze zum Schutz der Menschenrechte und die Praxis in Lateinamerika. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf drei grundsätzlichen Normen internationaler Menschenrechtsverträge im Hinblick auf Verbot der Folter, Verbot des Verschwindenlassens und Anspruch auf eine demokratische Regierungsform. Untersucht werden vor allem die Konsequenzen der Festschreibung von Menschenrechtsnormen in der Region. (DSE/DÜI)
Describes efforts since 1992 to give the successful relationship based on economic cooperation and development assistance a firmer grounding through trade liberalization; 4 articles. Includes proposals for political, economic, and cultural cooperation made at the summit meeting among 48 EU, Latin American, and Caribbean heads of state, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1999; the 1997 association agreement and 2000 free trade agreement between the EU and Mexico; new emphasis being placed by European nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Latin America on development of civil society and promotion of democracy.
Reconstructing America (1997), by James Ceaser, examines the problems outlined by Plato's Republic & places them within a US context. In the process, Ceaser looks at a number of varied theoretical writings on the US. In urging a return to a "real America," one that is based on a certain historical & self-understanding, however, Ceaser does not take the expected path. Rather than focus on the Declaration of Independence or on the US's religious foundation, Ceaser examines the idea that the "real America" is based on experience. In so doing, Ceaser gives us the means necessary to find a degree of autonomy from the postmodern "gods" that seem to have us bound. K. A. Larsen
