scholarly journals Agency and Structure in Latin American Regime Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 1866802X2095950
Author(s):  
Barry Ames ◽  
Ignacio Mamone
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Agency And Structure ◽  
Average Measure

Transitions from authoritarianism and breakdowns of democracy have long been central puzzles for scholars of Latin American politics. Because structural explanations have proved to be weak, recent work has emphasised political agency. This strand of research is promising, but major questions remain unanswered: Who are the key actors driving regime change? How do their individual preferences affect transitions and breakdowns? This article focuses on three central members of the political elite: presidents, opposition leaders, and military commanders. These actors develop unique preferences about regimes and unique degrees of radicalism regarding their preferred policies; in turn, these preferences and radicalism affect the probabilities of regime change. Testing the argument in 20 nations between 1945 and 2010, we find that an average measure of preferences masks crucial distinctions in the chain of regime change. Transitions to a competitive regime are more likely when autocrats have low intrinsic commitments to dictatorship. The survival of democracies hinges on whether top military officials develop pro-democratic preferences. The role of executive preferences, by contrast, is moderated by the attachments and radicalism of opposition leaders. Next, we examine how structural contexts shape both preferences and political outcomes, finding that economic development shapes both the emergence of preferences and radicalism and their impacts on regime change. Our findings improve the validity of political agency theories and reconcile the roles of actors with the environments in which regimes emerge and fall.

True Crimes: Rodolfo Walsh and the Role of the Intellectual in Latin American Politics

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McCaughan
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Dirty War ◽  
Death Squad ◽  
The Us ◽  
Own Name ◽  
The Military

Rodolfo Walsh was a writer of crime novels, a tireless investigative journalist who uncovered real political crimes, an instant historian of a turbulent and violent era in Argentinian and Latin American politics. He was in Cuba in 1960, participating in setting up the first revolutionary press service in Latin America, "Prensa Latina", when a coded telex arrived in their offices by mistake. After sleepless nights and with one cryptography manual, Walsh deciphered the plans for the US invasion of Cuba being planned in Guatemala by the CIA. Walsh was active in the Montonero guerrilla in Argentina, co-ordinating information and intelligence work. In that capacity he made public the existence of ESMA, the Naval Mechanics School which was the main military torture centre. In his own name he wrote an Open Letter to the Military Junta, a year from the coup and a day before his death, denouncing the dirty war. He was gunned down in the streets of Buenos Aires by a military death squad. This is an account of Rudolfo Walsh's life. It includes extended excerpts from his varied writings.

“Are You One of Those Women?” Within-Movement Conflict, Radical Flank Effects, and Social Movement Political Outcomes*

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly J. McCammon ◽  
Erin M. Bergner ◽  
Sandra C. Arch
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Radical Flank

Studies of social movement outcomes rarely consider the impact of conflict between groups within movements on the ability of movement actors to achieve their political goals. In this examination of the Texas women's movement from the late 1950s until the early 1970s, we consider the role of within-movement conflict as organized women worked to gain an Equal Legal Rights Amendment. Our analysis reveals that conflict within movements can benefit activists by fueling a radical flank effect and, in the end, helping activists achieve important political goals. Our study also reveals the agency of movement actors as one group distances itself from another to seek political elite support. Such efforts can help activists open largely closed political opportunity structures. We conclude that researchers studying movement political outcomes should consider the potentially beneficial role of within-movement conflict.

scholarly journals Against the current: The emergence of a media democratization policy agenda in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-248
Author(s):  
Philip Kitzberger
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Transnational Activism ◽  
American Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Spontaneous Reaction

In Latin America, the role of the media in democratic societies has recently become the subject of public debates, struggles and political mobilizations that have denaturalized the existing media order and established a distinct policy agenda oriented towards media democratization. This region-wide trend – a counter-tendency to the globally dominant market-driven orientation of media and telecommunication policies – requires explanation. This article stresses that it cannot be attributed to a spontaneous reaction to market concentration or media elitism, just as it cannot be reduced to a top-down process driven by populist leaders seeking to control the media. Drawing on social movement literature, the article traces four interacting processes – domestic network mobilization, reframing processes, transnational activism and changes in political elite alignments – that have brought about the unprecedented politicization of the Latin American media order.

Latin-American Executives: Essence and Variations

1961 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
Excellent Work ◽  
Comparative Government ◽  
Variations On A Theme

The most widely-professed fact in the field of Latin American politics is unquestionably the dominant role of the president. The task facing Latin Americanists is not the defense of this theme but the elaboration of it. One of the most confining factors — so often lamented at conferences where these matters are discussed — is the lack of information in depth concerning all of the revelancies of power structure. This is particularly evident in appraising cultural factors although it must be admitted that much excellent work is now being done. A very challenging problem in the area of comparative government is involved, a problem admitting of some of the methodological uneasiness associated with that branch of political inquiry. Obviously, in the study of Latin American politics one may proceed with greater assurance with the “variations on a theme” technique than would be possible in many other areas; however, some disillusionment and appreciable inaccuracies lie in wait if one submits to this temptation too extensively.

Religious Pluralism and New Political Identities in Latin America

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristián Parker
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Role Of Religion

The role of religion in Latin American politics can no longer be interpreted with reductionist schemes. The faithful—citizens—are combining faith and politics in unprecedented ways, and churches and denominations are no longer factors of political identity. The reconfiguration of new social and political movements interweaves complex linkages with the religious. The transformations of the political field and especially of democratic processes have reshaped identities in a context of increasing religious and cultural diversity with relatively less Catholic presence and greater Evangelical presence. Institutional secularization and religious pluralism seem to go hand in hand with a new cleavage between religion and politics.La presencia de lo religioso en el campo político latinoamericano ya no puede ser interpretada con esquemas reduccionistas. Los fieles—ciudadanos—entremezclan fe y política de maneras inéditas, y las iglesias y denominaciones ya no son factor de identidad política. La re-configuración de los nuevos movimientos sociales y políticos entretejen vinculaciones complejas con lo religioso. Las transformaciones del campo político y en especial de los procesos democráticos han redefinido las identidades en un contexto de diversidad religiosa y cultural creciente con menor presencia relativa católica y mayor presencia evangélica. Secularización institucional y garantía del pluralismo religioso parecen ir de la mano con un nuevo clivaje entre religión y política.

The Marriage of Finance and Order: Changes in the Mexican Political Elite

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Angel Centeno ◽  
Sylvia Maxfield
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Government Bureaucracy ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The Government ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The 1960S

Recent literature on Latin American political economy appears to echo work of the 1960s and 1970s emphasising technical expertise in government. Sikkink and Geddes, for example, suggest that the role of technical experts and professionalisation of the bureaucracy explain Brazil's relative economic successes in the 1960s.1 Conaghan, Malloy and Abugattas focus on the role of technocrats in economic policy—making in the Central Andes.2 Following seminal work by Camp and Smith, Hernández Rodríguez presents the latest data on the role of technocrats in the Mexican political elite.3 To a large extent, this recent literature on technocrats in Latin America fails to address one of the main issues debated in the earlier literature: the political consequences of increasingly technocratic government. A second problem with recent work is that, when it does address causal issues, it tends to follow the functionalist logic of earlier literature. Using data on Mexican political elites, this article develops a new typology which carefully differentiates the new technobureaucratic elite from other elite groups. The aim is to shed new light on the debate over the implications of increasing technocratisation. Secondly, this study of the rise of a new elite emphasises the role of institutional changes within the government bureaucracy in addition to the state's functional response to changes in its politico—economic environment. This article begins with a brief discussion of earlier general — and Mexico—specific — literature on technocrats.Some analysts of technocracy in the 1960s and 1970s saw technocrats as apolitical specialists whose growing role in society heralded ‘an end to ideology’ and increased efficiency in government.4

The Role of Evaluative Tools in the Creation of the Memorial Media Portrait of Jacques Chirac (1932—2019)

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
E. N. Mikhailova ◽  
V. A. Telegina
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Entire Text

The article is devoted to the study of evaluative tools used in modern French media in order to form the media image of a representative of the political elite. The techniques used in the creation of a memorial media portrait of Jacques Chirac (1932—2019), President of France from 1995 to 2007 are considered. The research material was the most prestigious French print media of various political orientations, published in late September — early October 2019 in connection with the death of the ex-President of the French Republic. The relevance of the research topic is dictated by the close attention of modern linguistics to axiological phenomena, differently presented in different types of discursive practices. The novelty of the study is due to the appeal to the analysis of the complex of evaluation tools used in the French print media when characterizing the former leader of the state during the nation’s farewell period. The estimated potential of the title of the article and its influence on the formation of the estimated vector of the entire text of the publication are shown. A systematic analysis of the assessment expression means, reflected in the memorial media portrait of the politician, is given. The factors that influenced the peculiarities of their use in this type of media portrait are revealed.

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