Citizenship,equality, and urban property rights in Latin America: The Peruvian case |
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Authors: | David G Becker |
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Abstract: | Research on liberal democracy in newly developing countries has been hampered by the view of civil society as a bounded realm;
by insufficient attention to power, class, and legal-juridical institutions; and by too limited a conception of social movements
with democratic potential. In this study of urban migrants’ struggle for property rights, the migrants’ political action is
found to be associated with a capitalist social movement. The legal changes that the movement helped institute and the means
that it employed have enhanced democracy by extending property rights to the poor and by opening up policy processes to public
debate and input. Insofar as liberal reform involves the law and its administration, it requires a positive, facilitative
state, in spite of liberalism’s broadly antistatist commitments. The study also reveals that liberal reform can have a popular
content even if supported by elites. The findings suggest that the realization of full citizenship rights is, for now, at
least as crucial to the future of Latin American democracy as the narrowing of economic inequalities.
David G. Becker is associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755. He is the author ofThe New Bourgeoisie and the Limits of Dependency (Princeton University Press, 1982); a counthor ofPostimperialism (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1987); and the author of “Beyond Dependency: Development and Democracy in the Era of International
Capitalism,” in Dankwart A. Rustow and Kenneth P. Erickson (ededs.),Comparative Political Dynamic (HarperCollis, 1991), in addition to many other articles on aspects of political development. Becker’s current research centers
of the nature of constitutionalism and democracy in Latin America. He is preparing a book-length treatment of the rule of
law in Latin America, along with an edited book on postimperialism that will present new case studies of a variety of countries
and world regions. |
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