Mexico and Bolivia in Comparative Perspective and the Sociology of Party Formation

2021 ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Edwin F. Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Critical Review ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Party Formation ◽  
Analytical Strategy ◽  
Partido Revolucionario Institucional ◽  
Ultimate Failure

This chapter measures up existing approaches to party formation against the rise of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in post-revolutionary Mexico (1929–1946) and the attempt but ultimate failure of Bolivia’s Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (1953–1964) to undertake a homologous process in the aftermath of the 1952 uprising, despite similarity in conditions. The chapters offers a critical review of existing theories of mass party formation and area studies literature, pointing to the limitations of ‘reflective’ and ‘state-modernizations’ approaches to the study of parties. Finally, it lays out the methodological and analytical strategy guiding the empirical chapters of Part II of the book.

Mass Party Formation: Land, Civil Society, and Party in Postrevolutionary Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-300
Author(s):  
Edwin F. Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Archival Data ◽  
Party Formation ◽  
Partido Revolucionario Institucional ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Land Privatization ◽  
Mass Organization ◽  
Electoral Mobilization ◽  
Bureaucratic State ◽  
Do So

AbstractWhat explains mass party formation? Prevailing approaches explain party formation as a process of reflection of preexisting social constituencies, or as the consequence of the rise of the bureaucratic state and in particular the advent of universal suffrage. These approaches fail to explain why Mexico’s Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) emerged as a mass party in some regions but not others despite attempts to do so and similarity in conditions that have been posited as central to party formation. I put forth a novel approach that posits that parties emerge as mass organization through a process of constitution of the very social base they claim to represent, but their constitutive powers are conditioned by fundamental economic structures. Relying on agrarian censuses and archival data, I show that the PRI emerged as a mass party in areas where land privatization had been more intensive. In these areas the party during its process of formation was able to build new, and absorb existing, peasant unions and organizations and carry out strong electoral mobilization. These findings suggest that mass party formation is dependent on the destruction of “pre”-capitalist agrarian structures.

Dispossession and Party Formation in Broader Comparative Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Edwin F. Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Labor Movement ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Party Formation ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Industrial Labor ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Friendly Societies ◽  
British Case

This chapter shows that rather than emerging from a ready-formed cohesive industrial labor movement, these parties’ original constituency was the demoted artisan and peasantry in transition to be, but not yet, proletarianized. Second, in a related way, the chapter shows that the period of party emergence followed a process of economic and political dispossession: these parties articulated new political subjectivities in the context of eroding traditional economic and political structures. The differences in the timing of party emergence between the countries lie precisely in how these processes of dispossession developed: in Germany, the process of economic dispossession coincided with a political dispossession setting the terrain for the mass-party form, while in the British case, economic dispossession was not initially accompanied by political dispossession of the working classes, who maintained a degree of self-presentational authority, particularly in the form of “friendly societies.”

Between Theory and History and Beyond Traditional Area Studies: A New Comparative Perspective on Latin America

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo L. Munck ◽  
Ruth Berins Collier ◽  
David Collier ◽  
Alain Touraine
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Traditional Area

Borderlands of Knowledge in the Estado da Índia (Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuries)

2019 ◽  
pp. 441-461
Author(s):  
Ines G. Županov
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
South Asia ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Ultimate Failure

Indian historiography commonly treated Iberian imperial presence in South Asia in the early modern period as a precocious and unsuccessful effort before that of the British Empire. The Portuguese (and Spanish) Estado da Índia had indeed been an exemplary “borderlands” empire. However, its territorial marginality and the ultimate failure to expand did not hamper it from acquiring a prodigious “empire of knowledge.” By centering on three categories of knowledge—medico-botanical, linguistic, and historical—this article addresses the ways of knowing, collecting, and crafting information in transcultural dialogue with local communities. It focuses on mapping the major sites and intersections through which the knowledge circulated in the Portuguese imperial global networks. In addition, this article argues that these devalued, “borderlands” epistemologies inspired in important ways both British Empire and the major disciplinary fields (linguistics, area studies, history, Orientalism) engaged in reflecting on South Asia.

scholarly journals Rethinking African Studies: Four Challenges and the Case for Comparative African Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-206
Author(s):  
Matthias Basedau
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée

This article takes stock of the state of African Studies and argues that (1) research on Africa is strongly dominated by outside, non-African, mostly Western views; (2) there is a tendency towards undifferentiated views on “Africa,” which usually concentrate on negative aspects, overlooking progress in many areas; (3) methodologies that focus on causal identification are rarely used; and (4) the field focuses on micro-perspectives while few works examine the big picture and the longue durée. The article then argues that Comparative African Studies, which builds upon the concept of Comparative Area Studies, can address some of these challenges. A pronouncedly comparative perspective would help to systematically combine and contrast “outside” and “inside” perspectives in order to better identify causal relationships and general trends both within Africa and between Africa and other regions. Consequently, African Studies requires more resources and should more effectively engage in multi-disciplinary and mixed-methods research.

Semi-synthesis as a tool for broadening the health applications of bioactive olive secoiridoids: a critical review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Oliverio ◽  
Monica Nardi ◽  
Maria Luisa Di Gioia ◽  
Paola Costanzo ◽  
Sonia Bonacci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Review ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Synthetic Analogues ◽  
Health Applications ◽  
Natural And Synthetic

Semi-synthesis is an effective strategy to obtain both natural and synthetic analogues of the olive secoiridoids, starting from easy accessible natural compounds.

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