Resource Mobilisation and Precarious Workers’ Organisations: An Analysis of the Chilean Subcontracted Mineworkers’ Unions

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Manky
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global South ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Resource Mobilisation

Despite the poor working conditions, between 2003 and 2007 Chilean miners organised the longest and largest strikes in the country since the 1980s, obtaining one of the most important recent victories of the Latin American labour movement. This article uses this experience to illustrate the importance of the links between precarious workers and political activists. Drawing on 18 months of extensive fieldwork conducted at several mining sites in Chile, the article contends that the analysis of precarious workers’ organisations needs to consider workers’ access to different organisational resources, and the role that political parties’ militants play in such access, particularly in the Global South.

Mission in the Middle

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-313
Author(s):  
Miguel Álvarez
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
North American ◽  
Global South ◽  
Missio Dei ◽  
Great Commission ◽  
Mission Theology ◽  
The North ◽  
The Poor ◽  
God's Mission

Abstract Miguel Álvarez, a native of Honduras, explores how mission theology and the contextual implementation of Missio Dei is impacted by Latino hermeneutics. As a foundation, the article compares the North American and Latin American approaches to missiology. It shows how mission as an act of benevolence in the practice of faith differs from mission as a total commitment to the gospel in the execution of the Great Commission. Álvarez contends that because of their context of service, Latinos interpret God’s mission based on a paradigm that favors the poor and disenfranchised of society, and he argues that the ministry of Jesus Christ followed the same paradigm. This Latino perspective on mission helps to explain the current revival that is taken place in the Global South today.

scholarly journals THE LEFTIST POLITICAL PARTIES IN LIGHT OF SIMONE WEIL’S CRITICISM: THE WORKERS’ PARTY CASE

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (145) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Alexandre Andrade Martins
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Critical Anthropology ◽  
Leftist Parties ◽  
Latin American Countries

Given the socio-political context of Latin American countries and their leftist and center-leftist parties that had governed some countries since the beginning of the 2000’s, this essay will present Simone Weil’s anthropology of a rooted people towards social justice guided by a spirituality of supernatural justice. This anthropology supports her criticism of political parties that this essay will use to examine the Brazilian context and its Workers’ Party that gov­erned the country for over thirteen years and ended its tenure after a process of impeachment. Although Simone Weil seems to be pessimistic as to whether multiparty or monoparty political systems are able to promote and maintain a social order able to lead people to find their rootedness, she develops a critical anthropology that allows us to understand when a political party abandons its commitment to develop social policies for the poor and working class. Conse­quently, the political party assumes an agenda of maintaining power, no matter the means that must be used to achieve this goal.

The Roma in Post-Communist Bulgaria: Growing Social Marginalization and State Policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Yorgos Christidis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Social Marginalization ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Poor

This article analyzes the growing impoverishment and marginalization of the Roma in Bulgarian society and the evolution of Bulgaria’s post-1989 policies towards the Roma. It examines the results of the policies so far and the reasons behind the “poor performance” of the policies implemented. It is believed that Post-communist Bulgaria has successfully re-integrated the ethnic Turkish minority given both the assimilation campaign carried out against it in the 1980s and the tragic events that took place in ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s. This Bulgaria’s successful “ethnic model”, however, has failed to include the Roma. The “Roma issue” has emerged as one of the most serious and intractable ones facing Bulgaria since 1990. A growing part of its population has been living in circumstances of poverty and marginalization that seem only to deteriorate as years go by. State policies that have been introduced since 1999 have failed at large to produce tangible results and to reverse the socio-economic marginalization of the Roma: discrimination, poverty, and social exclusion continue to be the norm. NGOs point out to the fact that many of the measures that have been announced have not been properly implemented, and that legislation existing to tackle discrimination, hate crime, and hate speech is not implemented. Bulgaria’s political parties are averse in dealing with the Roma issue. Policies addressing the socio-economic problems of the Roma, including hate speech and crime, do not enjoy popular support and are seen as politically damaging.

Electoral Rules and Democracy in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia McClintock
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Freedom House

During Latin America’s third democratic wave, a majority of countries adopted a runoff rule for the election of the president. This book is the first rigorous assessment of the implications of runoff versus plurality for democracy in the region. Despite previous scholarly skepticism about runoff, it has been positive for Latin America, and could be for the United States also. Primarily through qualitative analysis for each Latin American country, I explore why runoff is superior to plurality. Runoff opens the political arena to new parties but at the same time ensures that the president does not suffer a legitimacy deficit and is not at an ideological extreme. By contrast, in a region in which undemocratic political parties are common, the continuation of these parties is abetted by plurality; political exclusion provoked disillusionment and facilitated the emergence of presidents at ideological extremes. In regression analysis, runoff was statistically significant to superior levels of democracy. Between 1990 and 2016, Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy scores plummeted in countries with plurality but improved in countries with runoff. Plurality advocates’ primary concern is the larger number of political parties under runoff. Although a larger number of parties was not significant to inferior levels of democracy, a plethora of parties is problematic, leading to a paucity of legislative majorities and inchoate parties. To ameliorate the problem, I recommend not reductions in the 50% threshold but the scheduling of the legislative election after the first round or thresholds for entry into the legislature.

scholarly journals Campaigning across continents: how Latin American parties link up with migrant associations abroad

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Fliess
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Migrant Associations

AbstractEmigrant voting rights have opened new electoral arenas, and many political parties increasingly campaign across borders. Yet relatively little is known about the challenges parties confront when campaigning transnationally and the strategies they have developed in response to these challenges. This paper addresses these shortcomings. First, I investigate the hurdles Latin American parties face in linking up with organized migrant collectives in residency countries for campaigning purposes. Second, I probe into the transnational linkage strategies these parties deploy to tap into migrant associations’ resources and mobilization capacities. This study builds on a comparative research design and draws on almost 40 semi-structured interviews with Bolivian and Ecuadorian party activists as well as association leaders in Barcelona, Spain. Departing from the party interest group literature, I identify three transnational linkage strategies Bolivian and Ecuadorian parties implement: 1) Infiltration, 2) Co-optation, and 3) Cooperation. All parties execute these tactics informally in order to comply with local norms that require associations to remain apolitical. The analysis further demonstrates that differences between home-country electoral systems shape the types of linkage strategies Bolivian and Ecuadorian parties use. This article contributes to the study of migrant politics and political parties in important ways. This study highlights how political parties actively negotiate their entry into the transnational electoral arena, and sheds light on how migrants remain politically connected to their home countries.

Colombian Parties and Political Development

1976 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Peeler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
Traditional Authority ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Authority Relationships ◽  
Latin American Countries

Colombia remains one of a very small group of countries in Latin America which retain competitive, liberal-democratic political institutions at this writing. Indeed, Colombia's civil government, recognizing a modicum of individual liberties and conducting periodic elections, has been shattered on relatively few occasions since the mid-nineteenth century, a record equalled or surpassed by few other Latin American countries. The Colombian political system is still dominated by the two traditional political parties (Liberal and Conservative) which arose in Colombia and elsewhere in the region in the nineteenth century. In almost every other country they have long since passed into oblivion or insignificance. This continued dominance by the traditional parties is commonly attributed to their successful mobilization of mass support, especially among the peasantry. The Colombian parties (unlike their counterparts elsewhere) early moved beyond being mere elite factions by using traditional authority relationships, clientelistic exchanges and ideological appeals to develop durable bases of mass support.

COVID-19 may trigger an ideological shift over decades

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Global South ◽  
Borrowing Constraints ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Thomas Piketty

Significance Research by Thomas Piketty shows that a form of free-market ideology has been a key driver of rising income inequality since the 1980s. The airing of alternative ideas, the challenge of decarbonising economies and the potential for the COVID-19 crisis to reset politics raise the prospect of a paradigm shift. Impacts In much of the global South, borrowing constraints and obstacles to taxing the wealthy will make redistribution harder. Strengthening democratic institutions may be as important as strengthening pro-equity political parties to advance redistributive agendas. Political parties in OECD nations have focused on ‘identity’ issues since the 1980s; COVID-19 is bringing redistribution back to the fore.

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