Global Crisis and Latin America

This essay examines Latin America's experience in the crisis and restructuring of world capitalism from the 1970s into the twenty‐first century, with particular emphasis on the neo‐liberal model, social conflicts and institutional quagmires that have engulfed the region, and the rise of a new resistance politics. The empirical and analytical sections look at: Latin America's changing profile in the global division of labour; the domination of speculative finance capital; the continued debt crisis, its social effects and political implications; capital–labour restructuring, the spread of informalisation and the new inequality; the passage from social explosions to institutional crises; the new popular electoral politics and the fragility of the neo‐liberal state. These issues are approached through the lens of global capitalism theory. This theory sees the turn‐of‐century global system as a new epoch in the history of world capitalism, emphasising new patterns of power and social polarisation worldwide and such concepts as a transnational accumulation, transnational capitalists and a transnational state. Finally, the essay argues that global capitalism faces a twin crisis in the early twenty‐first century, of overaccumulation and of legitimacy, and explores the prospects for social change in Latin America and worldwide.     

九一一事件后美国对拉丁美洲的政策与拉美的反美主义

本文对九一一以来美国对拉丁美洲的政策及拉美地区出现的反美主义情绪进行了探讨。文章认为,单边主义是美国长期以来对拉美政策的突出特点。九一一后,由于反恐而进行政策调整的需要,布什政府对拉美的单边主义倾向更加明显,不仅表现在国际事务上以美国的意愿行事,而且在外交上有意忽视拉美国家。这种单边政策是激起拉美国家和人民反美主义的最重要根源之一。拉美国家的公众反美情绪不仅表明了其对美国的态度,而且激励了本地区的领导人挑战美国,甚至导致一些国家发生了政治转向。文章还以古巴为特例,分析了美国对西半球这个唯一的社会主义国家的政策,认为布什政府在很大程度上保持了美国对古巴政策的连续性,其主调仍然是强硬的,但另一方面,由于反恐的需要和国内利益集团的促动,美古关系也出现了松动的迹象。     

Political Institutions,Policymaking, and Policy Stability in Latin America

In some Latin American nations, policy change occurs frequently, while in others it is stable, less prone to shifts with the prevailing political climate or shocks. The conditions under which institutional rules and the powers of key actors influence the capacity for governance vary, and this variation is seldom addressed in the literature. This project examines the effects of the interactions between key policymakers (the executive and the legislature) in Latin America on policy stability across different institutional frameworks. Countries with simultaneously strong executives and weak legislatures are shown to have unstable policy environments, as are countries with a history of unified government and, to a lesser extent, candidate‐centered electoral systems.     

Security Challenges in Latin America

This article challenges established security ideas on Latin America, beginning with the assumption that militarised states and military coups d'état now belong to a bygone era. The attempt is to demonstrate that, despite a regional framework for cooperation, democratic governments here have not established a democratic process of decision-making, particularly where security issues are concerned. This absence of democratic civil control over the military could challenge, and even potentially undermine, the consolidation of democracy in Latin America.     

Democratic and Revolutionary Traditions in Latin America

This article seeks to identify and explain the historical links between democracy and revolution in Latin America. It first defines and analyses 'democratic' and 'revolutionary' traditions in the continent. It notes the precocity of nineteenth-century Latin American liberalism which, stimulated by the independence struggles, carried implications for the subsequent onset of democracy in the twentieth century. It then presents a typology of five twentieth-century political permutations (social democracy, revolutionary populism, statist populism, socialist revolution, and authoritarian reaction), seeking to tease out the corresponding relationships between the two 'traditions'. It concludes ( inter alia ) that the current triumph of liberal democracy in Latin America, while in part attributable to historical precedent, is also significantly contingent, and dependent on the apparent exhaustion of the revolutionary tradition.     

Globalization and Pension Reform in Latin America

While financial globalization has created powerful incentives for Latin American governments to privatize old age pension systems, reliance on short-term capital flows has also constrained the ability of cash-strapped governments to enact that reform. Analysis of the technocratic process of pension reform in Argentina and Brazil provides evidence. Instead of simply generating unidirectional pressures for structural pension reform, financial globalization has created a double bind for Latin America's capital-scarce governments, fostering long-term incentives to privatize pension systems while heightening the risk of punishment in the short term.