Globalization And Uncertainty in Latin America

by Johnson, Diane E.; López-Alves, Fernando

• ISBN13: 9781403978936
• ISBN10: 140397893X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Globalization and Uncertainty in Latin America gathers new scholarship on globalization and Latin America in an entertaining and well-researched volume. This balanced and innovative collection examines how rising levels of uncertainty affect daily life, as well as society, government, and culture. Well-known authors use different methodologies to approach the common theme of a region transformed in recent years by neoliberalism. Most of the contributors suggest that Latin America is experiencing rapid and unexpected change, and that its future looks much different than ever predicted. In total, the book suggests that high levels of uncertainty in the region have resulted in counterintuitive and, at times, innovative political outcomes.

Author Biography

Fernando López–Alves is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He has published two books on state formation in Latin America:  a monograph, Between the Economy and the Polity in the River Plate (1993), and State Formation and Democracy in Latin America (2000).  He is co-author (with Miguel A. Centeno) of The Other Mirror:  Grand Theory and Latin America (2001).  His Societies without Future (2002) is now in its third edition.  López–Alves is also editor of Seven Scenarios for the 21st Century (2004).  His articles on globalization, Latin America and comparative politics have appeared in Past & Present, Latin American Research Review, other journals and edited collections.  He is presently working on another book manuscript, entitled Futures, States, and Nations.

Diane E. Johnson is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lebanon Valley College (PA).  She has published book chapters on the relationship between interest groups and political parties in Argentina, and the democratic impact of the Internet in the U.S.  She has also presented numerous papers on the effects of globalization on media–state relations in Latin America, the impact of neoliberal economic reforms on democracy in Argentina, and issues related to the freedom of the press in the Southern Cone.  She is currently doing research on the reemergence of the left in recent South American elections, and the relationship between neopopulist leaders and the mass media.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
Notes on Contributors	p. ix
Introduction: Uncertainty and Globalization	p. 1
The Uncertainties of Liberalism and Neoliberalism, Past and Present
Victorian Globalization in Microcosm: The Rise and Fall of Jabez Spencer Balfour	p. 27
Uncertainty, the Construction of the Future, and the Divorce Between Citizens and the State in Latin America	p. 47
Isomorphic Neoliberalism and the Creation of Inevitability	p. 77
Can the Backlash Against Globalization Be Contained?	p. 97
Uncertain Relations between the State and Civil Society
Globalization and Public Policy in the Americas: Are We Heading Toward Convergence?	p. 117
Development Assistance, the Environment, and Stakeholder Participation: Toward a New Conditionality?	p. 145
Uncertainties about Human Rights and Justice
Globalization and the Modern Conception of Human Rights	p. 179
Generating Uncertainty: Globalized Punishment and Crime	p. 205
Conclusion	p. 227
Index	p. 237
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