Evo Morales and Bolivian Politics in the 20th and 21st Centuries

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Crabtree
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Abrupt Change ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Rural And Urban

Evo Morales Ayma was elected president of Bolivia in December 2005, taking office in January 2006. He has since been reelected on two separate occasions, in 2009 and 2014. Like Lula in Brazil, Morales is one of the few Latin American leaders to emerge from truly humble origins, a trait that helps explain his lasting popularity with a largely poor and indigenous voting public. The evolution of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), Morales’s party, had its roots in the struggles to resist the United States–inspired “war on drugs” in the late 1990s, yet it managed to broaden the scope of its appeal to involve a range of social movements, both rural and urban, using the defense of natural resources as a leitmotiv to bring together disparate groupings. In government, Morales sought to engineer an abrupt change from neoliberal policies pursued by elite-led civilian administrations since the 1980s, reasserting the role of the state in development, bringing the all-important hydrocarbons industry back into public control, speeding up land reform, introducing a constitution that reasserted indigenous rights, and enacting policies designed to redistribute income and combat poverty. A polemical figure, Morales has attracted adulation from supporters and bitter criticism from opponents. Scholarship has reflected this polarization. Conservative critics, at one end of the spectrum, have tended to stress the authoritarian features of his government and its disdain for democratic niceties; Marxists at the other end tend to see it as an exercise in pale reformism that has left the power structure in Bolivia largely intact. In between, of course, there are a variety of intermediary positions that draw out both the achievements and limitations that this article seeks to assess.

scholarly journals The Urban Worlds of Latin and Anglo America: PrefatoryThoughts

2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Richard M. Morse
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Introductory Paper

This introductory paper examines some of the main questions raised by the papers presented to the urbanization symposium in Vancouver. Comparisons between the Latin American urban experience and that of the United States and Canada revealed basic contrasts in spite of some broad hemispheric similarities. Differences were particularly apparent in the residual influence of native society on later European settlement, in the role of the state versus private commerce in growth and development, and in the differing class structures.

Setting the Regional Agenda: A Critique of Posthegemonic Regionalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Petersen ◽  
Carsten-Andreas Schulz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Regional Agenda ◽  
New Phase

AbstractThere is a growing scholarly consensus that Latin American regionalism has entered a new phase. For some observers, the increasing complexity of regional cooperation initiatives renders collective action ineffective. For others, the creation of new schemes signals a “posthegemonic” moment that has opened a space for collaboration on social issues. Both camps attribute this shift to the absence of the United States and the presence of left-leaning governments. By contrast, this study demonstrates that this agenda is not new, nor has the United States impeded similar initiatives in the past. In fact, the United States was instrumental in expanding regional cooperation on social issues in the early twentieth century. Instead, this article argues that agenda shifts are best explained by an evolving consensus about the role of the state. The “new agenda” is in line with historical attempts by governments to use regionalism to bolster their own domestic reforms.

scholarly journals The Role of the Internet in the Endurance of “La Llorona” as a Liminal Archetypal Monster in Modern Latin American Society

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ramírez Plascencia
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
La Llorona ◽  
American Society ◽  
Urban Places ◽  
Latin American Society

Monsters are liminal beings that not only portray fears,  proscriptions and collective norms, they are also embedded with special qualities that scare and, at the same time, captivate  people’s inquisitiveness. Monstrosities are present in practically all cultures; they remain alive, being passed from one generation to another, often altering their characteristics over time. Modernity and science have not ended people’s belief in paranormal beings; to the contrary, they are still vivid and fresh, with contemporary societies updating and incorporating them into daily life. This paper analyses one of the most well-known legends of Mexico and Latin America, the ghost of “La Llorona” (the weeping woman). The legend of La Llorona can be traced to pre-Hispanic cultures in Mexico, however, the presence of a phantasmagoric figure chasing strangers in rural and urban places has spread across the continent, from Mexico and Central America, to Latino communities in the United States of America. The study of this liminal creature aims to provide a deep sense of her characteristics – through spaces, qualities and meanings; and to furthermore understand how contemporary societies have adopted and modernised this figure, including through the internet. The paper analyses different  versions of the legend shared across online platforms and are analysed using Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s (1996) theoretical tool described in his work Monster Culture (Seven Theses), which demonstrates La Llorona’s liminal qualities.

Ideas, Institutions and the Policies of Governments: a Comparative Analysis: Part III

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony King
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Common

III THE PATTERN EXPLAINED In part I of this paper we described the gross pattern of public policy in our five countries. In part II we looked at how the pattern developed in each of the countries. We noticed that the countries have pursued policies that diverge widely, at least with respect to the size of the direct operating role of the State in the provision of public services. We also noticed that the United States differs from the four other countries far more than they do from each other. These findings will not have come as a great surprise to anybody, although some readers may have been surprised – in view of the common assumption that all major western countries are ‘welfare states’ – to discover just how much the countries differ and what different histories they have had.

The Role of the State Oil Company in Latin America

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
A.A. Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Private Organization ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Oil Company

ARPEL is a private organization working for the benefit of its 20 member companies as well as promoting the economic integration of their respective countries. The Latin American State Oil Companies (LASOCs) are responsible for 80% of petroleum activities in the region, which in 1990 amounted to 7.4 mbd or 11.4% of the world's production. Mexico and Venezuela are responsible for 2/3 of the output. The LASOCs. besides filling domestic needs and seeking country self-sufficiency, look for opportunities for participation in international markets and to attract external investment.

Abuses and Apologies: Irresponsible Conduct of Human Subjects Research in Latin America

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 353-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Aultman
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Human Experimentation ◽  
American People ◽  
Responsible Conduct Of Research ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Cultural Gaps

As much as we can be squeamish and angry over what was being done in these studies, they force us to consider how we tell these stories and the policy we make now, as so much of our research is global and the risks and benefits of experimentation always in need of recalibration.Susan M. ReverbyA growing distrust exists among Latin American populations as past abuses in medical research have rightly been publicized, and as researchers continue to intentionally and unintentionally circumvent the systems of regulation and oversight. Beyond the cultural gaps between researcher and subject, the Latin American people have their own perspectives about responsible conduct of research formed by sociopolitical thought and familial and community identity, which may be overlooked or ignored by the U.S. and other foreign nations. Just as the Havasupai Tribe in Arizona have challenged us to think about the role of culture and the need for improved regulations and practices in conducting research within the United States, through past abuses in human experimentation and the emergence of discourse between our Latin American neighbors, similar challenges confront us.

World War Looms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Horne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
South America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Open Door ◽  
World War ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
Travel Abroad

This chapter describes how Claude Barnett began to collect material on racial problems in South America. It was at this point that Barnett and the Associated Negro Press (ANP) assumed more forcefully the role of the Negro's State Department, inquiring persistently about barriers strewn in the path of African Americans who sought to travel abroad. The ANP contacted the Brazilian embassy in Washington about the alleged barring of U.S. Negroes, though their charges were met with denials. Furthermore, the Mexican government irritably denied that it barred African Americans from arriving south of the border, after being accused thusly by Barnett. Meanwhile, the ANP did not necessarily come to this issue with clean hands, for it could be accused easily of falling victim to nativist bias in objecting to Latin American migration to the United States, as it demanded an open door for African Americans to enter other nations.

scholarly journals The Return of the State?

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobus Delwaide
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Integration ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Free Market Capitalism

Massive government-financed rescue operations for banking and insurance industries in the United States and in Europe, seeking to contain the financial crisis that culminated in 2008, amounted to ‘the biggest, broadest and fastest government response in history.’1This ‘great stabilisation,’ asThe Economistcalled it, resulting in ‘quasi’ or ‘shadow nationalization,’2cast doubt on the notion, fashionable at the height of the neoliberal wave, that the state was essentially on its way out, as many of its tasks and responsibilities were oozing steadily and irreversibly toward the market. The state and, by the same token, the political seemed back – with a vengeance, triggering solemn announcements of ‘the return of the state’ and ‘the end of the ideology of public powerlessness.’3Observers concurred. ‘Free-market capitalism, globalization, and deregulation’ had been ‘rising across the globe for 30 years,’ yet that era now had ended: ‘Global economic and financial integration are reversing. The role of the state, together with financial and trade protectionism, is ascending.’4Triggering a perceived ‘paradigm shift towards a more European, a more social state,’ even in the United States and in China, the crisis was seen to herald a move ‘back towards a mixed economy.’5The question, meanwhile, remained: had the state indeed withdrawn as much during the neoliberal era as is often assumed?

Politics and Inequality in Latin America

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (04) ◽  
pp. 651-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyne Huber
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
International System ◽  
State Action ◽  
Land Distribution ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Structural Roots ◽  
Latin American Countries

Our symposium offers a variety of perspectives, such as on self-perpetuation of inequality in the international system, or on the consequences of inequality for economic growth or for social and political conflicts. This contribution discusses the determinants of domestic policy choices that affect inequality and the consequences of these policy choices. The empirical focus is on Latin American countries, which collectively are characterized by the highest regional levels of inequality in the world, but individually show considerable variation. Different analyses have emphasized different causes of income inequality and of the variation in inequality, such as historical structural roots in land distribution and natural-resource endowments, geography, ethnic divisions, the economic context, demographics, and state action or lack thereof. The role of the state has not received much systematic attention until rather recently, though, despite its essential role in the allocation of resources.

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