Development from below: Neighborhood improvement associations in the Latin American squatter settlements

Juntas, a type of neighborhood association found in many Latin American countries, are described in terms of their common characteristics, functions, and strategies. Factors which strengthen juntas are isolated, and the potential for juntas to become ongoing institutionalized structures is discussed. Information from a large number of written sources was compared in order to identify the common cross cultural characteristics of juntas. Juntas generally originate as squatter invasion forces organized to take over and settle, either gradually or overnight, unocupied lands in or near urban centers. After invasion the huntas continue to function as neighborhood associations which make collective demands on the government for public services and which promote various self-help projects within the squatter community. Juntas are widespread in Latin American countries. Of the 91 squatter settlements which have been studied in 11 different countries, 61 has juntas. Participation of household heads in the juntas ranges from 10-70%. Most squatter invasions are planned or spontaneous radical political action. The collective invasion itself often serves to open negotiations with the government. After the invasion leaders are elected, and they help organize the new community by assigning land, setting boundries, screening new settlers, collecting dues, and directing a variety of self-help construction projects. Collective demands are then made on the government to provide urban services such as water and electricity. The collective nature of the demand helps reduce the risk of official retaliation. Demand strategies include petitioning high level government officials, utilizing personalistic contacts, affiliating with either the rulingpower or opposing parties, appealing to outside agencies, linking up with other juntas, conducting public demonstrations, and publicizing their grievances in order to engender public support. After basic services are provided the juntas promote self-help projects such as organizing taxi services, medical clinics, vocational and lteracy programs, and building playgrounds. The juntas sometimes perform quasi governmental functions, such as, settling disputes between community members and policing the community. Participation in juntas declines as the need for making outside demands lessens; however, the high level of self-help activity keeps the juntas viable. They also retain the latent capacity for political demand behavior if the need for action arises. Factors which strengthen juntas included 1) high population density and large size of the squatter community, 2) defined boundaries, 3) close proximity to urban agencies, 4) climatic factors which make it necessary to act quickly and collectively, and 5) a moderate level of heterogeneity in the squatter population.     

Latin American environmentalism: Comparative views

This article examines three common generalizations from the literature on Latin American environmentalism. The validity of these generalizations, structured as hypotheses, is tested with four case studies from Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil. The first generalization is that tensions arise between international environmentalists principally concerned with wildlands conservation and national environmentalists engaged in a broader array of local and domestic issues including urban environmental quality and access to natural resources. The second is that environmental groups in Latin America are elitist in structure and participant base. The third is that the particular tactics employed by environmentalists will be closely tied to the relative openness of their nation’s political system. Through a cross-disciplinary case study approach we find the first two hypotheses quickly break down upon closer inspection, while the third is supported. We suggest a modified framework for interpreting environmental activism in the region, one that weights the role of the state as well as the competing strategies employed by grassroots, private voluntary, and professionalized environmental groups. Latin American environmentalism is highly diverse, presenting many faces in different time periods and different countries. Developing one general theory of environmentalism in Latin America is impossible, but more specific categorizations of the middle range may be achievable.     

Latin american municipal government:the rise of metagovernment

Metagovernment, the extra-legal and informal government that has developed in the squatter settlements and informal economic sectors of Latin American nations is rapidly becoming the most relevent form of government for many Latin Americans. The roots of this phenomenon can be found in the early history of Latin American municipal governments and the persistence of an exclusionist and elitist set of institutions and va:ues from colonial times to the present The social and economic forces contributing to the rise of metagovernment emanate from the rural regions ane the high levels of population growth in the reglor toqether with the unbalanced patterns of regional development in the region. Metagovernment is a response to the exclusionist and elitist political cutture, and :he prcduct of new social forces and groups arising in urban Latin Amerlca.     

拉美政坛上的女总统

1974年庇隆夫人当选为阿根廷总统,使得拉美地区成为全世界第一个女总统的诞生地,从此揭开了拉美女总统的政治篇章。算上2010年10月31日当选的巴西总统迪尔玛·罗塞夫,拉美政坛先后出现过11位女总统。本文对现任三位女总统作一一介绍。     

The free-market city: Latin American urbanization in the years of the neoliberal experiment

We examine the evolution of Latin American cities in the last two decades of the twentieth century and in the first years of the twenty-first on the basis of comparable data from six countries comprising over 80 percent of the region’s population. These years correspond to the shift in hegemonic models of development in the region, from import-substitution industrialization to neoliberal “open markets” adjustment. We examine how the application of the new policies correlates with change patterns in four areas: urban systems and urban primacy; urban unemployment and informal employment; poverty and inequality; and crime, victimization, and urban insecurity. We present detailed analyses of each of these topics based on the latest available data for the six countries. We conclude that significant changes in patterns of urbanization have taken place in the region, reflecting, in part, the expected and unexpected consequences of the application of the new model of development. Implications of our findings for each of the four areas examined and for the future of the region are discussed. Alejandro Portes is department chair and Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of sociology, and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. His current research focuses on the adaptation process of second-generation immigrants and the rise of transnational immigrant communities in the United States. Bryan R. Roberts is professor of sociology and C.B. Smith Chair in US-Mexico Relations at the University of Texas, Austin. His most recent work explores issues of develorment, globalization, immigration, and social policy in Latin America. Data on which this paper is based were collected by theLatin American Urbanization at the End of the Twentieth Century project, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We thank our collaborators and directors of country teams, without whom this study would not have been possible: Marcele Cerruti and Alejandro Grimson in Argentina; Licia Valladares, Bianca Freire-Medeiros, and Filippina Chinelli in Brazil; Guillermo, Wormald, Francisco Sabatini, Yasna Contreras and their collaborators in Chile; Marina Ariza and Juan Manuel Ramirez in Mexico; Jaime Joseph and the Centro Alternativa research team in Peru; and Ruben Kaztman, Fernando Filgueira, Alejandro Retamoso and their collaborators in Uruguay. We would also like to thank Carolina Flores and Lissette Aliaga for their assistance in assembling and analyzing survey data-bases from the six countries. We also thank anonymous referees of this journal for their comments. Responsibility for the contents is exclusively ours.     

历史与现实中的拉丁美洲主义

拉丁美洲主义的形成与发展 在15世纪末16世纪初,西班牙和葡萄牙殖民主义者用“火和剑”征服了美洲,将其变为殖民地。1635年和1647年法国殖民主义者又将美洲的瓜德罗普和马提尼克分别变为殖民地。西、葡、波殖民主义者皆讲带有拉丁语词干的拉丁语系语言。这些殖民主义者力图巩固在已占领地区的统治地位,竭力传播其宗教(主要是天主教),推广其拉丁语词干的拉丁语系语言,故将其占领的美洲称之为拉丁美洲。而西班牙殖民主义者在美洲国家中占领的殖民地     

Distributional effects of dollarisation: the Latin American case

Over the past two years Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala have adopted the US dollar as a legal currency in their countries. Several other Latin American countries, including Argentina, are currently discussing dollarisation. In this policy paper we look at the existing evidence for answers to two basic questions. First, under what general circumstances might dollarisation make sense? Second, are there clearly differentiated winners and losers from dollarisation and, if so, can we identify them, so that policy can take these political economy factors into consideration? Our review of the evidence demonstrates that there are consistent patterns of distributional effects, both positive and negative, from the choice of exchange rate regime. These effects are presently not considered in exchange rate policy decision making, but should be. While the effects are not as pronounced as those from major trade liberalisation agreements, they are significant. Ways to cushion the effects of exchange rate regime choice should be considered in the future by policy makers. Moreover, we find that dollarisation is embedded in the politics of the region. Dollarisation is often sold as a substitute for the deeper institutional reforms needed to improve economic performance and distribution in Latin America.     

Reinventing urban government in the Netherlands: an American perspective

National agricultural policies intended to stabilize farm price and income may have different impacts on different agricultural sector of a state or a region. A policy which influences a region's agriculture also may affect the general economy of that region, depending on the degree to which agriculture is linked to the general economy. This study evaluates the economywide impact of the Flexible Planting Program (FPP) -- a recent policy designed to encourage farmers to respond more to market than to the government incentives. The study employs an integrated modeling framework which links the national and state farm sectors to the region's non-farm sectors. Because of reductions in real U.S. market prices and, in turn, Tennessee market prices of some farm commodities under FPP, production of most agricultural outputs are expected to decline in Tennessee by 1995. Study results indicate that as a result of price reductions, the agricultural sector will lose about 15 percent of output, income, and employment. These losses cause significant negative impacts on the business-related service sector. The service sector suffers a loss of 31 million dollars in total output and 523 jobs. The total income lost by the service sector (18 million dollars) will be much higher than agriculture sector (11.99 million dollars). Thus, though the FPP may deliver its intended good at the national level, the policy has the potential to cause undesirable impacts on certain regions.     

Confronting Coup Risk in the Latin American Left

Military coups d'état have become dramatically less frequent in Latin America over the past 20 years, leading many analysts to conclude that the risk of coups in the region today is negligible. Yet we observe that a particular subset of presidents in the region—namely, those commonly associated with the radical left—pursue a wide range of “coup-proofing” behaviors, primarily in the way that they manage relations with their militaries, but also in their political rhetoric. Our goal in this article is to explain why some Latin American presidents spend precious resources on coup-proofing. First, even as we demonstrate that coup activity is significantly diminished across the region as a whole, we offer evidence to suggest that coup risk is quite real in countries with radical left presidents. Second, we identify several specific strategies that these presidents have pursued to minimize coup risk. We explain the coup-proofing rationale behind each of these strategies and document their use in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Third, we show that no similar set of strategies or policies has been pursued by moderate leftist or more conservative presidents in the region. We infer from these empirical patterns that radical left presidents have undertaken substantial efforts to maintain military allegiance and to mitigate coup risk precisely because they recognize the possibility of military intervention. In our conclusion, we suggest that these strategies may confer a short-term benefit for the presidents who implement them, but they are likely to have negative consequences for the long-term stability of democratic institutions.     

Modernization from above versus reform from below: U.S. policy toward Latin American agricultural development

This article distinguishes two tendencies in United States policy towards Latin American agriculture: a redistributionist tendency, favouring the break‐up of large private estates into small peasant plots; and a productionist tendency, favouring technical efficiency on existing holdings as the key to successful development. It is shown that this latter tendency has come increasingly to prevail in U.S. Government circles over the past decade, a shift in policy which is assumed to reflect political as well as strictly economic considerations. The endorsement of land reform, at least on the level of declared policy, in the early years of the Kennedy administration, has been followed by a reappraisal which brings U.S. policy more in line with the preferences of the large landowners who are among the most reliable political allies of the United States. (Ed.)     

The ownership advantage in Latin American FDI: A sectoral study of us direct investment in Mexico

This article develops a model which tests the hypothesis that sectoral FDI flows from the United States to Mexico over a four‐year period can be explained by the ownership advantages of US multinationals. Theoretical developments in the concept of ‘ownership advantage’ are used to guide the formulation of the research. The findings suggest that direct investment into US MNEs’ affiliates in Mexico is driven by benefits derived from embedded human knowledge, technology‐embodied advantages, and possibly from scale advantages. Local R&D is negatively associated with FDI.