Crisis and Democracy in Latin America

1991 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 608-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Democratization in Latin America took place throughout the 1980s within a context of acute economic crisis, thus posing a sharp challenge to established theory. This essay examines alternative explanations-economic, political, institutional, international-for this paradoxical outcome. It is argued that the political impact of the debt crisis differs for the short, medium, and long terms. The analysis also devotes considerable attention to the concept of “democratization” and to the quality of Latin American democracies, which tend to contain pervasive authoritarian features. Careful reading of these phenomena can lay the foundation for new and enduring theoretical frameworks about the relationship between macroeco-nomic transformation and political change.

scholarly journals The Contentious Politics of Social Policy expansion in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3 - Sup2) ◽  
pp. 189-205
Author(s):  
César Guzmán-Concha ◽  
Rossella Ciccia
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Social Policy Reform ◽  
The Relationship

Latin America witnessed a resurgence of protests during the 1990s and early 2000s. Citizens took to the streets to protest against the liberalization of public services and rising levels of inequalities and poverty. This situation partly changed in the decade of the 2000s when the region experienced a period of sustained social policy expansion intended to extend protections to formerly excluded groups. Did popular mobilization have an influence on the turn toward universalism in Latin American social policy? This paper explores this question by looking at the relationship between protest, the strength of the Left and the adoption of expansive reforms in healthcare, conditional cash transfers and noncontributory pensions. The findings bring support to the idea that protest is a relevant aspect of the politics of social policy reform, although its effects are both sensitive to other characteristics of the political environment and the particular policy dimension considered. 

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.

Foreign Direct Investment and Its Politics in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Douglas Hecock
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
National Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Latin American Countries

The open economic policies Latin American countries adopted in the wake of the debt crisis of the early 1980s were expected to bring a variety of benefits. Trade liberalization and privatization make domestic firms more competitive, and deregulation helps to create an efficient business climate. Notably, such policies are also likely to spur foreign investment seeking new opportunities, and Latin American countries did indeed begin to see large inflows in the 1990s. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is thought to be particularly complementary to economic development. Compared to portfolio investment in stocks and bonds, FDI consists of the construction or purchasing of physical assets including manufacturing facilities, retail outlets, hotels, and mines. FDI should spur local economic activity and bring with it jobs and technology transfers. Furthermore, because divestment takes planning and time, direct investment is relatively long-term, so investors are expected to display greater commitments to the economic and political futures of their hosts. As a result of these substantial potential benefits, a body of scholarship has emerged to try to understand the political dynamics of FDI. Is investment more likely to flow to democratic or authoritarian regimes? Are direct investors seeking countries with few labor protections and weak environmental regulations or are they attracted to public investments in human capital? Do they eschew governments with poor human rights records or do they see abusers as potential partners in managing a compliant workforce? What are the effects of FDI flows on the political contexts of their hosts? Among others, these questions have received significant scholarly attention, and while we have learned a great deal about the behavior and effects of FDI, considerable potential remains. Having received massive inflows averaging more than $100 billion between 2000 and 2017 and consisting of countries with broadly similar development trajectories, Latin America offers a rich landscape for such analysis. In particular, finer-grained examinations of FDI to Latin American countries can help us understand how it might affect political systems and which types of investment best complement national development projects. In so doing, studies of FDI flows to Latin America are poised to make major contributions to the fields of international political economy, development studies, and comparative politics.

Democracy and Economic Crisis: The Latin American Experience

1990 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Remmer
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Liberal Democratic

The debt crisis has raised serious concerns about the future of democratic governance in Latin America. The prevailing assumption is not merely that economic decline undercuts prospects for democratic consolidation; because of their vulnerability to popular political pressures, democracies—particularly new democracies—have been seen as incapable of mounting effective policy responses to critical economic challenges. A comparative study of policy outcomes in Latin America since the outbreak of the debt crisis challenges this assumption. If we control for the magnitude of the debt burden at the outbreak of the crisis, no statistically significant differences emerge between democratic and authoritarian regimes, or between new democracies and more established regimes. The findings suggest that the conventional wisdom about democracy and economic crisis exaggerates the relationship between political regime characteristics and policy choice, and fundamentally misconstrues the strengths and weaknesses of liberal democratic forms of governance.

Crisis and poverty: With reference to Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-257
Author(s):  
Hyevin Koo ◽  
Jinhwan Oh
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Currency Crisis ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poverty Measures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Latin American Countries

This study analyzes the relationship between four types of economic crises and four poverty indices in an effort to determine which type of crisis most affects the poor, and find possible solutions. This study is particularly concerned with Latin American countries in which International Monetary Fund bailout programs have failed due to repeated crises, longer lasting inflation, and most of all poverty. The results indicate an apparent worsening trend in poverty measures due to the crises. Among several types of crises, debt crisis and currency crisis play larger roles than others, particularly with the headcount poverty ratio US$3.10.

The Political Impact of Economic Crisis in Latin America in the 1980s

1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 777-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Remmer
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Party System ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Crisis Conditions

Research on the political implications of economic conditions is separated into two relatively distinct bodies of literature. I bridge the theoretical gap between them by examining the effects of economic crisis on electoral outcomes in Latin America from 1982 to 1990. An analysis of 21 competitive elections indicates that crisis conditions undermine support for incumbents and provoke high levels of electoral volatility but without necessarily fostering the growth of political extremism or the exhaustion of elite consensus associated with the breakdown of democracy. The results also suggest that the relationship between economic conditions and electoral instability is mediated by party system structure rather than democratic age. Paradoxically, the findings buttress prior research on electoral outcomes in the comparatively stable and homogeneous Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations while undercutting theoretical frameworks elaborated with specific reference to the breakdown and consolidation of Third World democracy.

Palestinian Diaspora Communities in Latin America and Palestinian Statehood

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-120
Author(s):  
Yousef M. Aljamal ◽  
Philipp O. Amour
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
South America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Right

There are some 700,000 Latin Americans of Palestinian origin, living in fourteen countries of South America. In particular, Palestinian diaspora communities have a considerable presence in Chile, Honduras, and El Salvador. Many members of these communities belong to the professional middle classes, a situation which enables them to play a prominent role in the political and economic life of their countries. The article explores the evolving attitudes of Latin American Palestinians towards the issue of Palestinian statehood. It shows the growing involvement of these communities in Palestinian affairs and their contribution in recent years towards the wide recognition of Palestinian rights — including the right to self-determination and statehood — in Latin America. But the political views of members of these communities also differ considerably about the form and substance of a Palestinian statehood and on the issue of a two-states versus one-state solution.

Resilient Factors in Students with Disabilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Rafael Escobar Delgado ◽  
Anicia Katherine Tarazona Meza ◽  
Andy Einstein García García
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Low Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Latin American Population

The research analyzes the relationship between factors of resilience and academic performance in disabled students studying at the Technical University of Manabí. It is a correlational descriptive study conducted with a population of 88 disabled students, of which two groups were selected, one with high academic performance and the other with low performance. A questionnaire was designed and applied to determine the level of quality of life and risk factors of adolescents. Resilience was measured with the SV-RES scale created for the Latin American population.

Capitalism and the State in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban Torres ◽  
Carina Borrastero
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The State ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Relationship

This article analyzes how the research on the relation between capitalism and the state in Latin America has developed from the 1950s up to the present. It starts from the premise that knowledge of this relation in sociology and other social sciences in Latin America has been taking shape through the disputes that have opposed three intellectual standpoints: autonomist, denialist, and North-centric. It analyzes how these standpoints envision the relationship between economy and politics and how they conceptualize three regionally and globally growing trends: the concentration of power, social inequality, and environmental depletion. It concludes with a series of challenges aimed at restoring the theoretical and political potency of the autonomist program in Latin American sociology.

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