The Political Value of Land: Political Reform and Land Prices in Chile

In this article, we argue that when patron‐client relations are grounded in economic relationships, such as between landlord and worker, we should expect clientelism to influence not just how public policy, the state, and the political system work, but also how the economy works. We develop a simple model of the economic consequences of electoral clientelism when voting behavior can be observed. Landlords/patrons provide economic rents to workers, and in exchange workers vote for parties favored by landlords. As votes are used by the landlords to accumulate political rents, vote control increases the demand for labor and for land. The model implies that the introduction of the Australian ballot, which destroys this form of clientelism, should lead to a fall in the price of land in those areas where patron‐client relationships are strongest. We test the predictions of the model by examining in detail the evolution of land prices in Chile around May 31, 1958, for which we collected original data. A characteristic of rural Chile at this time were patron‐client relations based on the inquilinaje system, by which a worker, the inquilino, entered into a long‐term, often hereditary, employment relationship with a landlord and lived on his landlord’s estate. We show that the introduction of the Australian ballot in 1958 led to a fall of about 26% in land prices in the areas where these patron‐client relationships were predominant.     

Studies presented to the international commission for the history of representative and parliamentary institutions 1937–1980

Summary

This article examines the problems faced by the Portuguese Cortes between 1821 and 1823 in attempting to create a constitution. This involved the central issue of whether or not sovereignty resided in the nation or in the person of the king. It led to a polarisation between traditionalists and liberals, although the latter believed that co‐operation between king and Cortes was a precondition for political and social stability. There were also disagreements about whether a royal veto over legislation should be conceded and whether or not a second chamber should be created. A compromise was found over the former, with the Crown receiving a suspensive veto, while a second chamber was rejected. Nevertheless, Portuguese liberals remained divided over the exact role of the Crown within the new constitutional order and that division, combined with the continued strength of traditional forces and external pressures, opened the way for a counterrevolution. Faced with intransigence on the part of the king and the traditionalists, the liberals could only protest by suspending the Cortes. João VI's reply was the declaration of Vila Franca (1823) which proclaimed royal sovereignty and replaced the Constitution of 1822 with one which was only a ‘gift’ from the Crown.     

Hyperreal America ∗

May 1968 in Paris was a utopian revolt which failed; America is a utopia which has been achieved. It is the original version of modernity. This article examines the logic of Biosphere 2 a miniature version of the entire planet, but which means the society is already living with the prospect of a catastrophe affecting its utopia, it is a zoological museum in anticipation of its own destruction.     

Riots in the UK: Morality,Social Imaginaries,and Conditions of Possibility

This article explores the controversies provoked by two recent exhibits in which People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) draws analogies between animal exploitation and the Holocaust and slavery. PETA's comparisons between the plight of animals and that of Jews and blacks are transgressive insofar as they disrupt settled notions of species difference by challenging the sacrosanct moral divide between humans and animals, and insofar as they do this by re-connecting race and species difference in a historically charged way. In the end, the controversies over PETA's exhibits raise difficult questions about the intersection of race and species as hierarchical categories ordering social life, what comparisons are “inadmissible” and why, and the responsibilities or obligations one social justice struggle might be said to have toward other struggles.     

“…everywhere she went I had to tag along beside her”: Family,life course,and everyday mobility in England since the 1940s

Mobility is one of the most important constituents of everyday life, yet it is rarely studied historically and we know little of how it relates to changing family and life course constraints. Using data drawn from oral life histories, this article examines changes in everyday mobility over the past 60 years focusing both on changes over the life course and on the constraints imposed by family structures. We argue that, like residential migration, daily mobility has been closely related to the life course, with women especially affected by the constraints of motherhood and marriage. However, there is evidence that such constraints have changed over time, and that some older people today enjoy more mobility than they did at earlier life stages. We also argue that the independent mobility of children was closely related to the family structure in which they were situated, but that these constraints have changed much less over the past 60 years. The oral testimonies examined also highlight the variability of mobility experiences and the role of the individual in fashioning mobility behavior.