New Political Movements and Governance in Latin America

ABSTRACT

This article argues that traditional governance in Latin America is in crisis. Globalization and IMF-advocated neoliberal economic policy have left the masses behind, despite the growth of democracy. Traditional governing structures often cannot respond to popular needs, and they are being challenged by a series of new, highly politicized social movements like the indigenous and peasant movements in Bolivia, popular assemblies in Argentina, and the Landless Movement in Brazil. In the process, new forms of popular mobilization and participatory decision making are challenging entrenched authoritarian attitudes and practices and making way for new political-bureaucratic structures and a new political culture.     

Democracy and Dictatorship in Continental Latin America During the Interwar Period

This article emphasizes the key role of labor in shaping trends and patterns of pica change. The first section of the article 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, the implementation of new modes of state regulation, and 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 general trends were unevenly distributed through the region (particularly after the 1930s), the second section of the article proceeds to abstract four patterns of political arrangements (repressive dictatorships, party competition, corporatist nationalism, and unstable labor politics). The article uses two principal variables (the relative weight of the middle and working classes and the degree of cohesion/fragmentation among elites) to explain these patterns of political change. Overall, the article suggests that the relative strength of labor and 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. I would like to thank Professor Irving Louis Horowitz for useful comments on an earlier version of this article. Previous versions of this research were presented at a seminar of the Latin American Studies Center at Princeton University, and at an annual meeting of the Southern Labor Studies Conference, where I benefited from comments by panel participants.     

Democracy and Development in a Globalized World: Thinking About Latin America from Within

The choice among paths that countries should follow has been a staple of political debates in Latin America and, over the past 40 years, Fernando Cardoso has brought his analysis to bear on these debates. This article summarizes and then assesses Cardoso’s argument about the choice of paths faced by Latin American countries, the consequences for democracy and development of following different paths, and the political position that is supported by this analysis of choices and their consequences. Though Cardoso explicitly supports the path of globalized social democracy over an anti-globalization option in the current period, I suggest that the current state of knowledge does not offer unequivocal support for the argument that choosing to follow the path of globalized social democracy—or that of anti-globalization—is the best political option for all countries in Latin America. Different countries might very well be doing what is best for them, given their circumstances, by following different paths.     

Access to Power Versus Exercise of Power Reconceptualizing the Quality of Democracy in Latin America

Research on comparative democratization has recently expanded its focus to issues of institutional quality: clientelism, corruption, abuse of executive decree authority, and weak checks and balances. However, problems of institutional quality are so different from those involved in regime transitions that it is unproductive to treat them as part of the same macro-process, democratization. Whereas regime transitions are changes in the form of access to power, problems of institutional quality involve the exercise of power. Abuses in the exercise of power affecting institutional quality are best characterized not as indicators of authoritarianism and deficiencies in democratization but as reflecting—in Weberian terms—patrimonialism and failures in bureaucratization. Moreover, struggles over the exercise of power involve causes, mechanisms, and actors that can be quite distinct from those at play in conflicts over access to power. The proposed analytical framework centered on the distinction between access and exercise enhances conceptual clarity and provides a stronger theoretical basis for tackling fundamental questions about politics in Latin America, including the failure of democratization to curb clientelism and foster other improvements of institutional quality, and the prospects of democratic stability under patrimonial administrations.     

The IMF,austerity and the state in Latin America

The Brazilian Economic Crisis

No to Recession and Unemployment: An Examination of the Brazilian Economic Crisis. Celso Furtado, London: Third World Foundation. 1984. 77pp. £2.95pb

Impact of Islam: domestic and foreign policies of Muslim states

Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam. Edward Mortimer, London: Faber and Faber. 1982. 432pp. £10.50pb

Islam in Foreign Policy. Edited by Adeed Dawisha, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1983. 191pp. £17.50

Central American Directions

Rift and Revolution: The Central American Imbroglio. Edited by Howard J Wiarda, Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute. 1984. 392pp. $10.95

Central America: Anatomy of Conflict. Edited by Robert S Leiken, Oxford: Pergamon. 1984. 351pp. £13.95.

Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. Walter LaFeber, London: W W Norton. 1983. 357pp. £14.95.

The Long War: Dictatorship and Revolution in El Salvador. James Dunkerley, London: Junction Books. 1982. 264pp. £12.50. £5.95pb.

International Organisations: Principles and Issues. A LeRoy Bennett, Hemel Hempstead, England: Prentice‐Hall International. 1984. 498pp. £26.75

Peacekeeping in Vietnam: Canada, India, Poland and the International Commission. Ramesh Thakur, Edmonton, Canada: University of Alberta Press. 1984. 375pp. $30.00

The World's Money: International Banking from Bretton Woods to the Brink of Insolvency. Michael Moffitt, London: Michael Joseph. 1984. 284pp. £9.95

Banking on Poverty: The Global Impact of the IMF and World Bank. Edited by Jill Torrie, Toronto, Canada: Between the Lines. 1983. 336pp. $22.95. $12.95pb

The Management of the World Economy. Evan Luard, London: Macmillan. 1983. 270pp. £25.00. £7.95pb

International Money and Capitalist Crisis: The Anatomy of Global Disintegration E A Brett London: Heinemann. 1983. 271pp. £13.50

Escape from Empire: The Attlee Government and the Indian Problem. R J Moore, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1983. 376pp. £19.50

The Multinational Corporation. Sanjaya Lall, London: Macmillan Press. 1983. 264pp. £6.95pb

The New Multinationals: The Spread of Third World Enterprises. Sanjaya Lall, Chichester, England: John Wiley. 1983. 268pp. £13.50

Poverty and Aid. Edited by J R Parkinson, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1983. 264pp. £19.50

State of the World 1984. Lester R Brown et al, London: W W Norton. 1984. 252pp. $15.95

Development and the Environmental Crisis: Red or Green Alternatives? Michael Redclift, London: Methuen. 1984. 149pp. £9.50. £ 4.25pb

Deepsea Mining and the Law of the Sea. A M Post, The Hague, Boston and Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff. 1983. 358pp. np

Climate and Development. Edited by Asit K Biswas, Dublin: Tycooly International. 1984. 146pp. £16.50. £5.95pb

The Political Economy of West African Agriculture. Keith Hart, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1982. 226pp. £19.00. £7.50pb

The Trouble with Nigeria. Chinua Achebe, London: Heinemann. 1984. 68pp. £1.95

The Struggle for Africa. Mai Palmberg, London: Zed Press. 1983. 286pp. £17.95. £5.95pb

State and Class in Africa. Edited by Nelson Kasfir, London: Frank Cass. 1984. 125pp. £18.50

Underdevelopment and Agrarian Structure in Pakistan. Mahmood Hasan Khan, Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard. 1981. 335pp. Rs150.00

Pakistan: The Political Economy of Development. Karamat Ali, Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard. nd. 381pp. Rs175.00

Rank and Rivalry: The Politics of Inequality in Rural West Bengal. Marvin Davis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1983. 237pp. £20.00. £7.95pb

Rural Development and the State: Contradictions and Dilemmas in Developing Countries. Edited by David M Lea and D P Chaudhri, London: Methuen. 1983. 351pp. £9.95pb

The Hong Kong Crisis. Gregor Benton, London: Pluto Press. 1983. 114pp. £3.5pb

Revolutionary Islam in Iran: Popular Liberation or Religious Dictatorship? Surdosh Irfani, London: Zed Press. 1983. 267pp. £18.95. £6.95pb

The Foreign Policy Systems of North and South Korea. Byung Chul Koh, London: University of California Press. 1984. 274pp. £22.80

The Developing Economies and Japan: Lessons in Growth. Saburo Okita, London: University of Tokyo Press. 1983. 283pp. £14.00

Arab Oil Policies in the 1970s: Opportunity and Responsibility. Yusif A Sayigh, London: Croom Helm. 1983. 271pp. £11.95

Guyana: Fraudulent Revolution. Latin America Bureau, London: Latin American Bureau. 1984. 105pp. £2.95pb

Problems of Development in Beautiful Countries: Perspectives on the Caribbean. Ransford W Palmer, Lanham, Maryland: North South Publishing Co. 1984. 91pp. $12.50

The Grenada Intervention: Analysis and Documentation. William G Gilmore, London: Mansell. 1984. 116pp. £5.95pb

O Mercado da Segurança: Ensaios sobre economia politica da defesa. Clóvis Brigagão, Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira. 1984. 183pp. np

Argentina: The Malvinas and the End of Military Rule. Alejandro Dabat and Luis Lorenzano, London: Verso. 1984. 206pp. £20.00. £5.95pb

A Vision of Hope: The Churches and Change in Latin America. Trevor Beeson and Jenny Pearce, London: Fount. 1984. 290pp. £2.95pb

Oil and Politics in Latin America: Nationalist Movements and State Companies. George Philip, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1982. 577pp. £37.50     

Demilitarisation in Latin America

Since the mid 1970s relations between the USA and Libya have been antagonistic. The radical policies the regime of Muammar Qadaaffi has pursued have made Libya one of the USA's bêtes noires . The reasons for US antagonism derive from Libya's repression at home, its alleged support for terrorism and for radical movements opposed to US interests, its staunch opposition to Israel, and its anti-Western rhetoric. Libya's hostility towards the USA rests on a perception of the USA as a global power intent on maintaining its hegemony and control over the Arab and Islamic world. Libyans have been resentful of US support of Israel to the detriment of Arabs and Muslims. Libya's resolute opposition to the USA especially in the 1980s, resulted in a series of military confrontations. The USA has maintained sanctions despite the suspension of UN sanctions on Libya in 1999. The USA has retained Libya on its short list of 'rogue states' despite recognition that Libya has stopped sponsoring terrorism. The contention here is that Libya, like the other 'rogue states', provides justification for US domestic policies (eg National Missile Defense). Given the events of 11 September 2001 in the US, it is quite conceivable that Libya could become a target of the US antiterrorism campaign. The USA could at last find valid justification for the removal of the Qadaffi regime.     

The trend of relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean from the perspective of Bi-regional Summits

<正>Nowadays,multilateral consultative mechanism is gradually becoming a mainstream approach in the contemporary international system.As one of the most important international collective player,the European Union(EU) has been engaging in multilateral cooperation and consultation since its inception.It has also been promoting a plural world through advocacy and action.The EU and the Latin America/Caribbean(LAC) Countries summits are considered a stability mechanism for promoting bi-regional dialogues.Nevertheless,after 10 years of bi-regional strategic partnership construction,the EU and LAC relations are currently experiencing a difficult phase,suggesting it is time to reform.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the advantages as well as the challenges to EU-LAC relations from the perspective of bi-regional summits,and to assess the short-term trend of their relations in the near future     

Privatization in Asia and Latin America

This article analyzes the political and economic predictors of privatization in 17 developing countries in Asia and Latin America, using an OLS regression model with panel-corrected standard errors and data from 1988 to 1999. The regression results show that two factors, which, have hitherto been either neglected or underemphasized in the privatization literature, play a crucial role in the pace and scope of, privatization. The first is a government’s revenue needs (defined in terms of interest payments on public debt as a percentage of a government’s total budget expenditures). An unsustainable interest burden leads to a significant reduction in the social and public spending of a government. This, in turn, impels incumbents to raise revenues through the sale of, state assets. The second factor that explains privatization patterns is the extant degree of, political opportunity (defined in terms of the governing politicians’ legislative strength and their security to remain in office). In addition, the results show that privatization is associated, with declining inflation and economic growth rates.     

Making Decentralization Work: A Cross-national Examination of Local Governments and Natural Resource Governance in Latin America

There has been increased emphasis in the last three decades on the decentralization of natural resource governance decisions to local government in developing countries as a means of improving environmental quality, public service delivery, and the accountability of local officials. We examine the performance of decentralization of natural resource management services in a large sample of municipal governments in four Latin American countries. Our analysis includes a variety of factors discussed in the literature as important in influencing the responsiveness of government officials to local needs. We provide a nested institutional model in which local officials respond to incentives created by the structure of formal political institutions at both the local and national level. The results provide support for the importance of considering local and national institutional arrangements as these co-determine the political incentives within decentralized systems.

Economic Growth and Convergence in Latin America

Little is known about the convergence process among developing countries in general and in Latin America in particular. For the period as a whole there is no evidence of a narrowing in the cross-country dispersion of income (sigma convergence). But there is evidence of convergence to different steady state income levels at a speed that is common to all countries (conditional beta convergence). The article also shows that the estimates of convergence are sensitive to the way in which GDP per capita is measured.