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.

Political power in Yugoslavia

1967 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jovan Djordjević
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Set Up ◽  
General Perspective

The institutional process is essentially an outcome and a reflection of political action. It is therefore understandable that political institutions have always interested not only political thinkers and politicians, but also those nations and groups which are struggling to set up, reorganize or abolish any given political institutions.Their importance lies, too, in the fact that they reflect fundamental political aspirations and relationships. They are more or less the true image of a political system and of the structure of a society at a given epoch. But when seen in a more general perspective, institutions are merely the framework of power, The complexity of and problems inherent in society, its permanent need for further material, cultural and political development have led to an expansion of the institutional structure of political society. This expansion is brought about by political organizations, especially by political parties, as well as by other organizations, such as trade unions, citizens’ associations, pressure groups, etc.

The Popular Parties: Brazil and Argentina in a Latin American Perspective

1984 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-268
Author(s):  
Torcuato S. Di Tella
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political System ◽  
Third World ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
American Perspective ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Latin American Countries

THE INSTABILITY OF MOST LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES derives to a large extent from the difficulty of incorporating the working class and other popular strata into the political system. Euro ean countries also had to face a similar challenge decades ago, gut the central position they had in the international economic system helped to ease the tensions. In the Third world or Latin America the problem is compounded because to the working class must be added large sectors of urban marginals, peasants and often the impoverished middle classes. These groups tend to form broadly-based parties which become the main contenders for power against the dominant establishment. They are placed in a somewhat similar position to that occupied by Labour, Social Democratic or Eurocommunist parties in Europe or Japan. But they are based on different organizational and ideological elements, and their popular rather than workingclass nature often involves strange coalitions. Brazil and Argentina share fully these traits. In order to understand the characteristics of the popular political parties in those two countries one must examine them in a Latin American comparative perspective.

Infrastructure

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-197
Author(s):  
Nicola Miller
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Latin American Countries

This chapter recounts the Latin American countries that welcomed foreign innovation and expertise for technically demanding infrastructure projects. It mentions how the American continent's first railways were built by Spanish American engineers under contract to the respective states, contrary to the common belief that British or US American companies always led the way. It also focuses on the visibility and intensity of public concern about the relationship between science and sovereignty in late nineteenth-century Latin America. The chapter reviews the overlooked history of resistance in Latin American countries on handing over infrastructure projects to private companies, especially if they were foreign owned. It disputes conceptions of the role of the state and provides further evidence for the argument that free-market liberals did not have their own way in nineteenth-century Latin America.

On the Rise of Postwar Military Dictatorships: Argentina, Chile, Greece

1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicos Mouzelis
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Sociocultural Differences ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Latin American Countries

Despite marked geographical and sociocultural differences, Greece and the two major southern-cone Latin American countries share a significant number of characteristics which distinguish them from most other peripheral and semiperipheral societies. Although they began industralisation late and failed to industrialise fully in the last century, all three countries managed to develop an important infrastructure (roads, railways) during the second half of the nineteenth century, and they achieved a notable degree of industrialisation in the years following each of the two world wars. Moreover, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, all three countries were subjugated parts of huge patrimonial empires (the Ottoman and the Iberian) and thus had never experienced the absolutist past of western and southern European societies. Finally, all three acquired their political independence in the early nineteenth century and very soon adopted parliamentary forms of political rule; and despite the constant malfunctioning of their representative institutions, relatively early urbanisation and the creation of a large urban middle class provided a framework within which bourgeois parliamentarism took strong roots and showed remarkable resilience. It persisted, albeit intermittently, from the second half of the nineteenth century until the rise of military bureaucratic-authoritarian regimes in the 1960s and 1970s and, as the Greek and Argentinian cases suggest, such regimes do not necessarily entail the irreversible decline of parliamentary democracy.

The Politics of Labor Protest in Mexico

1976 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Handelman
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Labor Movements ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
Labor Protest ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Ruling Party

In years past, Mexico's political system was often cited as a model for political development in the “third world” (Scott, 1974, 1965). While most Latin American governments allowed associational interest groups little opportunity to articulate their needs and demands, Mexico's ruling party (the PRI) provided institutionalized representation for three major segments of the nation's population: the agrarian sector (peasants and agricultural workers); the middle class (the “popular sector”); and organized labor unions. Anderson and Cockcroft (1966: 16) indicated that “the Mexican national leadership seem … to be committed to tolerating a substantial amount of political pluralism. It is taken for granted … that occupational groups attempt to promote their interests and demands through organizations.”More recently, however, a “revisionist” group of political scientists has disputed the contention that Mexico is moving toward democratic pluralism; instead they characterize its political system as essentially authoritarian (Purcell, 1973; Johnson, 1971; Stevens, 1970; Davis and Coleman, 1974). In this article I shall examine the degree of latitude which the Mexican political system allows independent labor movements I in articulating the demands of their members and in pressing I those demands on the ruling party.

Ecuador’s Social Movements, Electoral Politics, and Military Coups

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Becker
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Latin American Countries

In the 200 years since Ecuador gained independence from Spain in 1822, it has experienced many of the social problems that have plagued other Latin American countries. Ecuador experienced a high degree of political instability during the 19th century, and a series of extra-constitutional and military governments marked much of the 20th century. At the dawn of the 21st century, Ecuador followed the rest of Latin America’s “pink tide,” which introduced progressive governments that sought to address long-standing problems of poverty and inequality. The country has endured numerous coups, caudillo and populist leaders, and forms of government ranging through conservative, liberal, populist, military, and civilian “democracy.” The diversity in political institutions led the political scientist John Martz to observe that Ecuador, although little studied among scholars of Latin American issues, “serves as a microcosm for a wide variety of problems, questions, and issues relevant to various of the other Latin American countries.” Despite a high degree of political instability, the country is also home to very strong popular movements that opened up space for the election of the left-wing government of Rafael Correa in 2006. His administration resulted in a remarkable shift from a period of extreme instability to political stability, with notable gains in economic growth and corresponding drops in poverty and inequality. Scholarly research on Ecuador has often reflected the country’s current political environment. In the 1950s, in the midst of the emergence of populist politics, researchers defined the country’s landscape in terms of its personalist leadership, particularly as represented by the perennial leader José María Velasco Ibarra. In 1972, General Guillermo Rodríguez Lara led a military coup that removed Velasco Ibarra from office. In the midst of a petroleum boom, he established a nationalist regime similar to that of Juan Velasco Alvarado in neighboring Peru. A massive Indigenous uprising two decades later introduced a generation of studies that examined ethnonationalist-based social movements. Those movements led to Correa’s election in the midst of a broader turn to the left in Latin America, which once again influenced the direction of investigations.

The Chilean Socialist Party: Prolegomena to its Ideology and Organization

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Pollack
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Country ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Military ◽  
National Electorate

It is common knowledge that, prior to the military coup of 1973, Chile was the only Latin American country to have strong workers' political parties of the European type. Many reasons have been given for this phenomenon, but it is clear that Chile has been the only country in Latin-America to allow the development of Marxist parties with strong appeal and a strong following, within the framework of what could be called liberal, democratic processes. Up to 1970, the electoral force of the Socialist and Communist Parties in Chile oscillated between 20 and 30 per cent of the total national electorate. This rose to more than 40 per cent during 1975.

Porfirian Commercial Propaganda: Mexico in the World Industrial Expositions

1977 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene Yeager
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Trade And Investment

Students of late nineteenth century history have long dismissed the world industrial expositions as glittering, but not highly significant reflections of the gilded age. What emerges from the literature of the period, however, is a sense of the overriding commercial importance of these exhibitions. Nineteenth-century observers consistently linked the fairs to the general growth of world trade and to the expanding commercial hegemony of the United States. More specifically, contemporaries agreed that the expositions served to develop trade and investment ties with Latin America. Among the Latin American countries represented in the expositions, Mexico was the most important and consistent participant.

Bureaucracy, Political Parties, and Political Development

1973 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-607
Author(s):  
Gerald A. Heeger
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Policy Making Process

The growing role of governmental bureaucracy has been one of the most noted and discussed characteristics of developing political systems. The phenomenon of bureaucratic intervention in politics, already discernible in the 1950's in many of these states, has, so it seems, become the rule rather than the exception in the years that have followed. Despite the prevalence of the politicized bureaucracy, however, and the amount of discussion engendered by the phenomenon, die sources of bureaucratic growth and dominance in the developing states remain obscure. Most analysts emphasize the superior organization of the bureaucracy and argue that this organization, reinforced by die transfer of techniques from abroad and uncontested because of weak indigenous political institutions, provides much of the explanation for the aggrandizement of the bureaucracy in die policy-making process.

scholarly journals Taxing Higher Incomes: What Makes the High-Income Earners Consent to More Progressive Taxation in Latin America?

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Berens ◽  
Armin von Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
High Income ◽  
Public System ◽  
Progressive Taxation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Trust In Institutions ◽  
Fiscal Contract ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Progressive Income Taxation

Abstract When do high-income earners get ‘on board’ with the fiscal contract and accept paying a larger share of the tax burden? Progressive taxes perform particularly poorly in developing countries. We argue that the common opposition of the affluent to more progressive taxation is not merely connected to administrative limitations to coercively enforce compliance, but also to the uncertainty that high-income earners associate with the returns to taxes. Because coercion is not an option, there is a need to convince high-income earners to ‘invest’ in the public system via taxes. Trust in institutions is decisive for the fiscal contract. Expecting that paid contributions will be used in a sensible manner, high-income earners will be more supportive of progressive income taxation. We study tax composition preferences of a cross-section of Latin American countries using public opinion data from LAPOP for 2012. Findings reveal that higher levels of trust in political institutions strongly mitigate the opposition of the affluent towards more progressive taxation.

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