Suchergebnisse

In Party Vibrancy and Democracy in Latin America, Fernando Rosenblatt sheds new light on why some parties remain lively organizations that generate intense attachment over time. He concentrates on party performance in three of the region's more stable countries--Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay--because they are regarded as 'consolidated' democracies with records of good governance. Even in some of these countries, he shows, party instability is a problem.

Amidst the many lamentations about the problems of democracy, Joe Foweraker turns his attention to specific questions: Is democracy incompatible with stark social inequalities? Why are so many democratic governments deemed unaccountable and beset by populist pressures? Perhaps most fundamentally, why does democratic theory have no answers to these questions? Foweraker argues that finding answers requires a root-and-branch revision of our thinking about democracy—a revision that asks us to stop talking about "democracy" and start talking about "polity." Drawing on the political realities of Latin America, he describes polity as a system encompassing the distinct but conjoined domains of oligarchy and democracy; and he offers a conceptual framework that identifies the key components and logic of polity. His innovative analysis affords a better understanding not only of democracy in Latin America, but also of democratic regimes around the world

Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Acronyms -- Map -- Chapter 1: Why Study Latin America? -- Chapter 2: Why History Matters -- Chapter 3: Latin America's Political Elites -- Chapter 4: Political Traditions, Political Legacies, and Political Institutions: How Personal Rule and Political Violence Figure in Modern Latin American Politics -- Chapter 5: Political Institutions and the Machinery of Government -- Chapter 6: Parties, Elections, and Movements -- Chapter 7: Unconstitutional Political Change: Coups, Insurgencies, and Revolutions as Contentious Politics -- Chapter 8: Democracy and Democratization -- Chapter 9: Political Economy and Economic Policy in Latin America -- Chapter 10: Latin American International Relations -- Chapter 11: Latin America in Comparative Perspective -- Bibliography -- Index

This volume investigates the ways in which the interaction between legislative institutions and the policy positions of key actors affects the initiation and passage of legislation. The volume covers seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay

This volume on democratic accountability addresses one of the burning issues on the agenda of policy makers and citizens in contemporary Latin America: how democratic leaders in Latin America can improve accountability while simultaneously promoting governmental effectiveness