Systems of social protection can provide crucial assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society, but not all systems are created equally. In Latin America, social policies have ...historically exhibited large gaps in coverage and high levels of inequality in benefit size. Since the late 1990s, countries in this region have begun to grapple with these challenges, enacting a series of reforms to healthcare, social assistance and education policy. While some of these initiatives have moved in a universal direction, others have maintained existing segmentation or moved in a regressive direction. Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America explores this variation in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela, finding that the design of previous policies, the intensity of electoral competition, and the character of political parties all influence the nature of contemporary social policy reform in Latin America.
This is a bold new study of the recent emergence of democracy in Latin America. Leonardo Avritzer shows that traditional theories of democratization fall short in explaining this phenomenon. Scholars ...have long held that the postwar stability of Western Europe reveals that restricted democracy, or "democratic elitism," is the only realistic way to guard against forces such as the mass mobilizations that toppled European democracies after World War I. Avritzer challenges this view. Drawing on the ideas of Jürgen Habermas, he argues that democracy can be far more inclusive and can rely on a sphere of autonomous association and argument by citizens. He makes this argument by showing that democratic collective action has opened up a new "public space" for popular participation in Latin American politics.
Latin America has been one of the critical areas in the study of comparative politics. The region's experiments with installing and deepening democracy and promoting alternative modes of economic ...development have generated intriguing and enduring empirical puzzles. In turn, Latin America's challenges continue to spawn original and vital work on central questions in comparative politics: about the origins of democracy; about the relationship between state and society; about the nature of citizenship; about the balance between state and market.
The richness and diversity of the study of Latin American politics makes it hard to stay abreast of the developments in the many sub-literatures of the field. The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics offers an intellectually rigorous overview of the state of the field and a thoughtful guide to the direction of future scholarship. Kingstone and Yashar bring together the leading figures in the study of Latin America to present extensive empirical coverage, new original research, and a cutting-edge examination of the central areas of inquiry in the region.
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This collection of essays explores the transformations of the political landscapes within which black social movements in Latin America have been operating since the end of the 1970s. ...Evaluating social movements in their various national contexts, the essays reveal that the official, state narratives about these movements have gone from considering these movements to be part of "monocultural mestizaje" to seeing them as multicultural and incorporated into, or coopted by, the state. As the contributions to this volume show, these new situations have rendered Afro-Latino political struggles more complex, at times even heightening the antagonism they encounter.
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Jean Muteba Rahier is an associate professor of Anthropology and director of the African & African Diaspora Studies program at Florida International University.
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This collection of essays examines in different national contexts the consequences of the 'Latin American multicultural turn' in Afro Latino social movements of the past two decades
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Drawing from a wide spectrum of disciplines, the essays in this collection examine in different national contexts the consequences of the "Latin American multicultural turn" in Afro Latino social movements of the past two decades.
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Includes interviews of two Afro Latino women who served as Minister and Vice-Minister, respectively, in their national government (Ecuador and Brazil) This is a multidisciplinary volume, which presents the work of specialists in sociocultural and political anthropology, human geography, sociology, political science, Latin American cultural studies, international law and human rights The first book to interrogate the recent political and scholarly developments of Latin American state corporatism/cooptation of Afro Latinos. The book will mark the paradigmatic shift that is taking shape in Afro Latin-American studies, where scholarly and political activists' narratives of Afro Latin American 'invisibility' are quickly becoming more and more untenable in front of current realities
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Introduction: Black Social Movements in Latin America: From Monocultural Mestizaje and 'Invisibility' to Multiculturalism and State Corporatism/Cooptation - J.M.Rahier PART I: SETTING UP THE STAGE Afro In/Exclusion, Resistance, and the 'Progressive' State: (De)colonial Struggles, Questions, and Reflections - C.Walsh International Organizations and the Human Rights of Afro Latin Americans: The Case of UNESCO - P.M.Fontaine PART II: A FOCUS ON CENTRAL AMERICA Garifuna Activism and the Corporatist Honduran State since the 2009 Coup - M.Anderson The Afro-Guatemalan Political Mobilization: Between Identity Construction Processes, Global Influences, and Institutionalization - C.Agudelo PART III: A FOCUS ON THE ANDEAN REGION The Quest for a Counter-Space in the Colombian Pacific Coast Region: Towards Alternative Black Territorialities or Cooptation by Dominant Power? - U.Oslender Multicultural Politics for Afro-Colombians: An Articulation 'Without Guarantees' - R.Cardenas The Afroecuadorian Social Movement: Between Empowerment and Cooptation - C.Torre & J.A.Sanchez Does 'Still Relatively Invisible' Mean 'Less Likely to be Co-opted'? Reflections on the Afro-Peruvian Case - S.Greene Interview of María Alexandra Ocles Padilla, Former Minister, Secretaría de Pueblos, Movimientos Sociales y Participación Ciudadana, Ecuador - J.M.Rahier & M.Prosper PART IV: A FOCUS ON THE BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCES State and Social Movements in Brazil: An Analysis of the Participation of Black Intellectuals in State Agencies; C.B.R. - Silva From the Black Councils to the Federal Special Secretary for the Adoption of Policies that Promote Racial Equality (SEPPIR): New Identities of the Black Brazilian Movement - J.Silva Interview of Maria Inês Barbosa, Former Vice-Minister, Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (SEPPIR), Brazil - J.M.Rahier
After decades of stagnation, the size of Latin America's middle class recently expanded to the point where, for the first time ever, the number of people in poverty is equal to the size of the middle ...class. This volume investigates the nature, determinants and possible consequences of this remarkable process of social transformation. We propose an original definition of the middle class, tailor-made for Latin America, centered on the concept of economic security and thus a low probability of falling into poverty. Given our definition of the middle class, there are four, not three, classes in Latin America. Sandwiched between the poor and the middle class there lies a large group of people who appear to make ends meet well enough, but do not enjoy the economic security that would be required for membership of the middle class. We call this group the 'vulnerable'.
In an almost mechanical sense, these transformations in Latin America reflect both economic growth and declining inequality in over the period. We adopt a measure of mobility that decomposes the 'gainers' and 'losers' in society by social class of each household. The continent has experienced a large amount of churning over the last 15 years, at least 43% of all Latin Americans changed social classes between the mid 1990s and the end of the 2000s.
Despite the upward mobility trend, intergenerational mobility, a better proxy for inequality of opportunity, remains stagnant. Educational achievement and attainment remain to be strongly dependent upon parental education levels. Despite the recent growth in pro-poor programs, the middle class has benefited disproportionally from social security transfers and are increasingly opting out from government services. Central to the region's prospects of continued progress will be its ability to harness the new middle class into a new, more inclusive social contract, where the better-off pay their fair share of taxes, and demand improved public services.
Latin America experienced an unprecedented wave of left-leaning governments between 1998 and 2010. This volume examines the causes of this leftward turn and the consequences it carries for the region ...in the twenty-first century.
The Resurgence of the Latin American Left asks three central questions: Why have left-wing parties and candidates flourished in Latin America? How have these leftist parties governed, particularly in terms of social and economic policy? What effects has the rise of the Left had on democracy and development in the region? The book addresses these questions through two sections. The first looks at several major themes regarding the contemporary Latin American Left, including whether Latin American public opinion actually shifted leftward in the 2000s, why the Left won in some countries but not in others, and how the left turn has affected market economies, social welfare, popular participation in politics, and citizenship rights. The second section examines social and economic policy and regime trajectories in eight cases: those of leftist governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as that of a historically populist party that governed on the right in Peru.
Featuring a new typology of Left parties in Latin America, an original framework for identifying and categorizing variation among these governments, and contributions from prominent and influential scholars of Latin American politics, this historical-institutional approach to understanding the region’s left turn—and variation within it—is the most comprehensive explanation to date on the topic.
Latin America is characterized by a uniquely rich history of cultural and racial mixtures known collectively as mestizaje. These mixtures reflect the influences of indigenous peoples from Latin ...America, Europeans, and Africans, and spawn a fascinating and often volatile blend of cultural practices and products. Yet no scholarly study to date has provided an articulate context for fully appreciating and exploring the profound effects of distinct local invocations of syncretism and hybridity. Rise and Fall of the Cosmic Race fills this void by charting the history of Latin America’s experience of mestizaje through the prisms of literature, the visual and performing arts, social commentary, and music. In accessible, jargon-free prose, Marilyn Grace Miller brings to life the varied perspectives of a vast region in a tour that stretches from Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina. She explores the repercussions of mestizo identity in the United States and reveals the key moments in the story of Latin America’s cult of synthesis. Rise and Fall of the Cosmic Race examines the inextricable links between aesthetics and politics, and unravels the threads of colonialism woven throughout national narratives in which mestizos serve as primary protagonists. Illuminating the ways in which regional engagements with mestizaje represent contentious sites of nation building and racial politics, Miller uncovers a rich and multivalent self-portrait of Latin America’s diverse populations.
Over the past two decades, the extraction of nonrenewable resources in Latin America has given rise to many forms of struggle, particularly among disadvantaged populations. The first analytical ...collection to combine geographical and political ecological approaches to the post-1990s changes in Latin America's extractive economy,Subterranean Strugglesclosely examines the factors driving this expansion and the sociopolitical, environmental, and political economic consequences it has wrought.
In this analysis, more than a dozen experts explore the many facets of struggles surrounding extraction, from protests in the vicinity of extractive operations to the everyday efforts of excluded residents who try to adapt their livelihoods while industries profoundly impact their lived spaces. The book explores the implications of extractive industry for ideas of nature, region, and nation; "resource nationalism" and environmental governance; conservation, territory, and indigenous livelihoods in the Amazon and Andes; everyday life and livelihood in areas affected by small- and large-scale mining alike; and overall patterns of social mobilization across the region.
Arguing that such struggles are an integral part of the new extractive economy in Latin America, the authors document the increasingly conflictive character of these interactions, raising important challenges for theory, for policy, and for social research methodologies. Featuring works by social and natural science authors, this collection offers a broad synthesis of the dynamics of extractive industry whose relevance stretches to regions beyond Latin America.
