Natural resource growth poles and frontier urbanization in Latin America

What does globalization mean for societies dependent on natural resource extraction? Synthesizing comparative evidence with empirical analysis from Venezuela, I show how the “growth pole” model for economic growth translated to an applied model for the spatial transformation of Latin America’s resource frontier, and the contradictions this development model engendered. Specifically, I weigh, local versus national consequences of Venezuela’s variation of the growth pole concept, Ciudad Guayana. Despite unimaginable natural resources and staggering public investments, this forty-year-old frontier metropolis is Latin America’s most successful experiment with the model, yet it remains constrained by its status as a source of raw materials.     

Super Tuesday 1988: Regional Results and National Implications

Fourteen southern and border states established a same-day presidentialprimary on 8 March 1988. This analysis shows that this SuperTuesday, in several senses, was less than super. The resultsturned out to be less satisfying than its Democratic founderspreferred but less upsetting than its critics anticipated. DespiteSuper Tuesday, Iowa and New Hampshire remained dominant in the1988 presidential primaries. Although voter turnout increasedslightly over 1984 and the results contributed mightily towardsettling the nomination in the Republican party, Super Tuesdayneither settled the Democratic nomination nor gave meaningfulmomentum to the more moderate Democratic candidates.