The Political Economy of Policy Volatility in Latin America

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Natural Resource Rents

AbstractWhy are some Latin American states plagued by persistent policy volatility while the policies of others remain relatively stable? This article explores the political economy of natural resource rents and policy volatility across Latin America. It argues that, all else equal, resource rents will create incentives for political leaders, which will result in repeated episodes of policy volatility. This effect, however, will depend on the structure of political institutions. Where political institutions fail to provide a forum for intertemporal exchange among political actors, natural resource rents will result in increased levels of policy volatility. Alternatively, where political institutions facilitate agreement among actors, resource rents will be conducive to policy stability. This argument is tested on a measure of policy volatility for 18 Latin American economies between 1993 and 2008. The statistical tests provide support for the argument.

scholarly journals Political Institutions and Street Protests in Latin America

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabiana Machado ◽  
Carlos Scartascini ◽  
Mariano Tommasi
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Information ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Latin American Countries

In this article, the authors argue that where institutions are strong, actors are more likely to participate in the political process through institutionalized arenas, while where they are weak, protests and other unconventional means of participation become more appealing. The authors explore this relationship empirically by combining country-level measures of institutional strength with individual-level information on protest participation in seventeen Latin American countries. The authors find evidence that weaker political institutions are associated with a higher propensity to use alternative means for expressing preferences, that is, to protest.

scholarly journals Dollars for Pesos? The Political-Economy of Dollarization in Latin America

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-81
Author(s):  
PAMELA K. STARR
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Policy Choice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Stable Growth ◽  
Latin American Countries

ABSTRACT The capacity of dollarization to generate stable growth in Latin America despite occasional instability in the international financial system has been the subject of significant economic analysis in recent years. Yet very little attention has been afforded to the politics of the issue. This paper attempts to fill this void by looking at both the political and the economic factors which influence the policy effectiveness of dollarization. The paper reviews the theoretic and policy debate within which the dollarization question is situated and then develops an informal model of the political and economic variables which influence the viability of dollarization. It concludes that although dollarization may be the correct policy choice for some Latin American countries, it is unlikely to benefit the majority. Most Latin American countries would benefit more from directly addressing the forces know to promote economic instability.

Populism from a Latin American Perspective

Populism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-77
Author(s):  
Taekyoon Lim
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
American Perspective

Abstract Discourses on contemporary populism owe much to the populism of the mid-20th century’s Latin America. From a Latin American perspective, the current paper critically reviews Dunn’s and Han’s papers on populism. These two papers are not quite directly comparable in their arguments because their analyses have discrete focuses and levels. Still, Dunn’s argument reasonably reflects the cases of the West whereas Han’s explains the Korean case quite effectively. One question that emerges from their discussion on populism is how generalizable their arguments are beyond the specific cases. From the perspective of Latin America, Dunn’s and Han’s arguments seem to have limited implications for understanding classical populism and contemporary neopopulism in Latin America though they provide insightful thoughts to rethink the political economy of the region with.

IV. Constitutional Development in Latin America: A Synthesis

1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell H. Fitzgibbon
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
British North America ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

“Do not give to a people institutions for which it is unripe in the simple faith that the tool will give skill to the workman's hand. Respect Facts. Man is in each country not what we may wish him to be, but what Nature and History have made him.” Bryce, Modern Democracies, I, 206.With minor exceptions, the panorama of constitutional growth in the Western Hemisphere reveals two main streams. The United States Constitution, the British North America Act of 1867 (which is the Canadian fundamental law), and the organic laws of the various New World British possessions of today all stem, obviously, from English constitutional and institutional ancestry. The constitutions of the twenty Latin American states, on the other hand, all reflect in varying degree the experience and institutions of their three mother countries. These modern constitutions are, it is true, influenced by alien examples at one point or another, but the core is undubitably Latin. More narrowly, the inspiration is Hispanic; and still more narrowly, Spanish.It is not easy to explain in detail the degree of similarity between French political institutions and those of the Iberian peninsula in the centuries between the emergence of the several national states and the political revolutions in Latin America. At least, the French belonged to a not unrelated family. A much closer relationship is easily discernible among the political institutions of the three main Iberian entities that ultimately became the national states of Spain and Portugal, viz., Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. It is often forgotten that for many generations no political or constitutional “Spain” existed, that Aragon and Castile were as distinct from each other in most ways as either of them was from Portugal, that an easily possible union of the ruling houses of Castile and Portugal—supplanting the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand—might have changed the whole subsequent course of history.

The Political Economy of Elections in Latin America, 1980–1991

1993 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Remmer
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Interrupted Time Series ◽  
The Political ◽  
Interrupted Time Series Analysis ◽  
Macroeconomic Performance ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The process of political democratization in Latin America during the 1980s created a rare opportunity to explore the political economy of elections outside of the North Atlantic basin. Using interrupted time-series analysis, I explore the impact of elections on macroeconomic performance in eight Latin American nations. The findings indicate that macroeconomic performance has fluctuated with the electoral calendar but that contrary to the traditional business cycle literature, as well as the conventional wisdom about Latin America, competitive elections have enhanced, rather than undermined, the capacity of political leaders to address outstanding problems of macroeconomic management. The analysis suggests that the relationship between democracy and economics is captured more adequately by a “political capital” model than by its traditional theoretical alternative.

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