Governing Latin America

by Foweraker, Joe; Landman, Todd; Harvey, Neil

• ISBN13: 9780745623719
• ISBN10: 0745623719
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-24
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

Governing Latin America is a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the contemporary politics of the region. Focusing on the enduring difficulties of achieving democratic stability, it explores the conduct of government through classic concepts like authority, accountability, and participation. These themes are developed within a consistently comparative perspective. This is an introductory text with a difference. Unlike many textbooks, it is organized by topic rather than country, and describes Latin America in an accessible language familiar to all students of politics. It addresses interests, identities, and actors, but remains distinctive in its attention to legal frameworks, political institutions, and the organization of government itself. The governments of Latin America today are mostly democratic, but democratic advance comes accompanied by persistent problems of oligarchic power, political corruption, legal impunity, and social exclusion. The authors show how the quality of the regionrs"s democratic governments depends on their variable success in responding to these challenges. Governing Latin America draws on the political diversity of the regionrs"s twenty-one republics to discover their general characteristics. These characteristics are rooted in regional history and culture, but powerfully influenced by global economy and international actors. Regional traditions and global realities are combined into an original synthesis that will appeal to students and teachers of both Latin American and comparative politics.

Author Biography

Professor Joe Foweraker is in the Department of Government, University of Essex.





Todd Landman, Senior Lecturer, Department of Government, University of Essex.





Neil Harvey, Associate Professor, Department of Government, New Mexico State University

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	vii
Introduction: Governing Latin America	1	(8)
PART I: AUTHORITY AND POWER	9	(48)
1 Authoritarianism and Democracy in Latin America	11	(23)
Founding state authority: nation-building and early modernization	12	(3)
Expanding state authority: divergent responses to mass politics	15	(12)
Reforming state authority: neoliberalism and delegative democracies	27	(7)
2 Latin America and the Democratic Universe	34	(23)
Defining democracy 35 Explaining democracy	37	(3)
Electoral vs. liberal democracy	40	(4)
Threats to democracy	44	(10)
Assessing democracy	54	(3)
PART II: ACCOUNTABILITY AND LEGITIMACY	57	(36)
3 Government and Citizens	59	(17)
Legitimacy, accountability, and participation in modern state formation	60	(5)
Legitimacy, accountability, and participation in Latin America	65	(8)
Neoliberalism, governments, and citizens	73	(3)
4 Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law	76	(17)
Political order	76	(1)
Constitutionalism and the rule of law	77	(6)
Human rights and Latin American governance	83	(8)
Forms and practices	91	(2)
PART III: REPRESENTATION, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL RIGHTS	93	(52)
5 Political Parties	95	(16)
Alphabet soup	95	(2)
Political parties are not well rooted in their societies	97	(2)
Political parties are patronage parties	99	(2)
Political parties are undisciplined	101	(2)
Political parties cannot be placed on a left-right continuum	103	(2)
Political parties are populist	105	(2)
Political parties are short-lived	107	(2)
Political parties contribute to political stability	109	(2)
6 Presidents, Legislatures, and Elections	111	(12)
Government and governability	111	(1)
Presidentialism and governability in Latin America	112	(1)
Explaining variations in governability in Latin America	113	(7)
Classifying the democratic governments of Latin America	120	(3)
7 Political and Social Rights	123	(22)
Defining political and social rights	124	(2)
Mapping political and social rights	126	(14)
Political rights, social rights, and democracy	140	(5)
PART IV: PARTICIPATION, CONTESTATION, AND CIVIL RIGHTS	145	(59)
8 New Political Actors	147	(19)
Social movements and civil society	147	(2)
The novelty of new political actors	149	(7)
Impact of new political actors	156	(5)
Future directions: global networks and NGOs	161	(5)
9 Minority and Indigenous Rights	166	(24)
Minority and indigenous rights	167	(3)
State formation: the denial of minorities	170	(4)
Indigenous movements, land, and cultural identity	174	(6)
Constitutional reform and indigenous rights	180	(10)
10 Uneven Democratic Performance	190	(14)
The uneven performance of Latin American democracies	190	(2)
Exploring uneven performance	192	(1)
Demonstrating uneven performance	193	(2)
Uneven performance and democratic transition	195	(1)
Uneven performance and democratic consolidation	196	(1)
Explaining uneven performance	197	(2)
Uneven performance and the rule of law	199	(1)
Putting the people back in democracy	200	(2)
The future democratic performance of Latin America	202	(2)
Notes	204	(10)
References	214	(14)
Index	228