Failed Democratic Reform in Contemporary Mexico: from Social Movements to the State and Back Again

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane E. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
Theoretical Premise ◽  
Democratic Transformation

Over the last decade or so, North American and European scholars have popularised a research focus on new social movements, or so-called autonomous and democratic struggles generated from within civil society against the state. The underlying theoretical premise of this approach is that challenges to the state from social movements are a principal driving force of political change in modern society. Despite its grounding in the advanced capitalist context, many Latin American scholars have found elective affinity with the argument, as evidenced in the recent tidal wave of studies on social movements by Latin Americanists. Basing their work primarily on analyses of Brazil, Argentina and Chile, scholars have argued that social movements help challenge the legitimacy and political power of strong and centralised governments in Latin America, at the same time creating from the grassroots a political culture suggestive of democratic transformation. In sort, there is growing consensus that social movements play a central role in bringing democracy to Latin America.

Indigenous Political Representation in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Rice
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indigenous Movements

Indigenous peoples have become important social and political actors in contemporary Latin America. The politicization of ethnic identities in the region has divided analysts into those who view it as a threat to democratic stability versus those who welcome it as an opportunity to improve the quality of democracy. Throughout much of Latin America’s history, Indigenous peoples’ demands have been oppressed, ignored, and silenced. Latin American states did not just exclude Indigenous peoples’ interests; they were built in opposition to or even against them. The shift to democracy in the 1980s presented Indigenous groups with a dilemma: to participate in elections and submit themselves to the rules of a largely alien political system that had long served as an instrument of their domination or seek a measure of representation through social movements while putting pressure on the political system from the outside. In a handful of countries, most notably Bolivia and Ecuador, Indigenous movements have successfully overcome this tension by forming their own political parties and contesting elections on their own terms. The emergence of Indigenous peoples’ movements and parties has opened up new spaces for collective action and transformed the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. Indigenous movements have reinvigorated Latin America’s democracies. The political exclusion of Indigenous peoples, especially in countries with substantial Indigenous populations, has undoubtedly contributed to the weakness of party systems and the lack of accountability, representation, and responsiveness of democracies in the region. In Bolivia, the election of the country’s first Indigenous president, Evo Morales (2006–present) of the Movement toward Socialism (MAS) party, has resulted in new forms of political participation that are, at least in part, inspired by Indigenous traditions. A principal consequence of the broadening of the democratic process is that Indigenous activists are no longer forced to choose between party politics and social movements. Instead, participatory mechanisms allow civil society actors and their organizations to increasingly become a part of the state. New forms of civil society participation such as Indigenous self-rule broaden and deepen democracy by making it more inclusive and government more responsive and representative. Indigenous political representation is democratizing democracy in the region by pushing the limits of representative democracy in some of the most challenging socio-economic and institutional environments.

Politicizing Consumption in Latin America

2018 ◽  
pp. 538-558
Author(s):  
Fátima Portilho ◽  
Michele Micheletti
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Working Through

Latin America is not only a region where labelled goods are produced for the Northern hemisphere. It is also a region where consumption has been politicized. Political consumerism takes a different trajectory in Latin America when compared with the northern hemisphere. Reasons include its different countries’ political culture and how corporations, governments, and social movements are driving forces for sustainable consumption. The region has a strong tradition of social movements, and these movements have incorporated political consumerism into their action repertoire. Political consumer tools are now becoming part of Latin American social movements’ strategies, though more emphasis is still put on working through the parliamentary arena rather than using the market as an arena for politics. The chapter covers some limitations and opportunities for the expansion of political consumerism throughout the continent. It also addresses weaknesses in the northern hemisphere’s theoretical framing of the phenomenon.

Capitalism and the State in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban Torres ◽  
Carina Borrastero
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The State ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Relationship

This article analyzes how the research on the relation between capitalism and the state in Latin America has developed from the 1950s up to the present. It starts from the premise that knowledge of this relation in sociology and other social sciences in Latin America has been taking shape through the disputes that have opposed three intellectual standpoints: autonomist, denialist, and North-centric. It analyzes how these standpoints envision the relationship between economy and politics and how they conceptualize three regionally and globally growing trends: the concentration of power, social inequality, and environmental depletion. It concludes with a series of challenges aimed at restoring the theoretical and political potency of the autonomist program in Latin American sociology.

scholarly journals América Latina: cidades, memórias e esquecimentos sob o olhar da literatura

REVISTA PLURI ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Yvone Dias Avelino
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
The Real ◽  
American Novels ◽  
History And Literature ◽  
America Latina ◽  
American Authors

Este artigo formula algumas reflexões sobre a associação da história com a literatura. Estabelecemos alguns nexos com trabalhos literários de autores latino-americanos do século XX. Nas páginas desses romances latino-americanos desfilam os expoentes de toda uma estrutura de dominação: políticos, velhos aristocratas, oportunistas recém-chegados, fazendeiros truculentos, funcionários públicos subservientes, advogados venais, representantes do capitalismo local, dominados e dominantes. Mostram-nos os vários escritores latino-americanos as ditaduras na sua insanidade grotesca, as repressões cruentas que fazem emergir os movimentos sociais populares. Estão presentes as turbulências do real e imaginário, utilitário e mágico, da dúvida e perplexidade, memória e esperança, do esquecimento e da desesperança, do espelho e labirinto.Palavras-chave: História, Literatura, Espelho, Labirinto, América Latina.AbstractThis article proposes some reflections about the association between history and literature. We have established some links with literary works written by Latin American authors of the twentieth century. In the pages of these Latin American novels the exponents of a whole structure of domination are paraded: politicians, old aristocrats, opportunist newcomers, truculent farmers, subservient civil servants, venal lawyers, representatives of local capitalism, dominated and dominant ones. The various Latin American writers show us dictatorships in their grotesque insanity, the bloody repressions that allow popular social movements to emerge. They outline the turbulences of the real and imaginary, utilitarian and magical, doubt and perplexity, memory and hope, forgetfulness and hopelessness, mirror and labyrinth.Keywords: History, Literature, Mirror, Labyrinth, Latin America.

scholarly journals The state of voice user interfaces in Latin America

2020 ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Adriana L Iñiguez-Carrillo ◽  
Laura S Gaytán-Lugo ◽  
Rocío Maciel-Arellano ◽  
Miguel A García-Ruiz ◽  
Daniel Aréchiga
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Voice User ◽  
Latin American Countries

This paper describes and analyzes the state of research in Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) in Latin America based on the review of scientific documents published in SCOPUS from 1999 to June 2020, through a bibliometric analysis. We analyzed 419 academic papers. Although a gradual increase is observed over the years, the number of published documents has increased considerably since 2014. Brazil (44%) and Mexico (28%) are the countries with more documents published. Co-authorship occurs between Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, and Costa Rica). However, the mayor collaboration from Latin American countries occurs with the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The main researched topics are studies of automatic speech recognition, artificial intelligence, speech processing, and human-computer interaction, which have grown over the past few years. Natural language processing, conversational agents, user experience, and chatbots are keywords related to more recent studies. Our analysis reveals that the primary active research developed in the short-term future are personal assistants and assistive technology using voice user interfaces.

State Musical Populisms

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-138
Author(s):  
Pablo Palomino
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Latin American ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
Cultural Activism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses

This chapter shows the emergence of a regional sense of Latin America as part of the musical pedagogy of the nationalist states at the peak of the state-building efforts to organize, through a variety of instruments of cultural activism, what at the time were called “the masses.” It analyzes particularly the cases of Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina—the three largest countries of the time in population and economic development—from the 1910s through the 1950s. It proposes a comparative history of Latin American musical populisms, focusing in particular on policies of music education, broadcasting, censorship, and experiences of state-sponsored collective singing.

19. Latin America

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Oelsner ◽  
Mervyn Bain
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Institutional Challenges

This chapter examines the main features of the undemocratic regimes that were in power in Latin America from the late 1960s, along with the democratization processes that followed since the 1980s. The nature of the non-democratic governments varied throughout the region, and consequently the types of transition and the quality of the resulting democracy varied as well. The chapter focuses on four cases that reflect these differences: Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela. For each country, the chapter reviews a number of dimensions that have been relevant in the democratization processes: the historical and international contexts, the role of economic factors, political culture and society, political parties and social movements, and the institutional challenges that still lie ahead.

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