Deborah Yashar analyzes the contemporary and uneven emergence of Latin American indigenous movements--addressing both why indigenous identities have become politically salient in the contemporary period and why they have translated into significant political organizations in some places and not others. She argues that ethnic politics can best be explained through a comparative historical approach that analyzes three factors: changing citizenship regimes, social networks, and political associational space--providing insight into the fragility and unevenness of Latin America's third wave democracies.
The Routeldge Handbook of Latin American Politics brings together the leading figures in the study of Latin America to present extensive empirical coverage and a cutting-edge examination of the central areas of inquiry in the region.
Indigenous people in Latin America have mobilized in unprecedented ways - demanding recognition, equal protection, and subnational autonomy. These are remarkable developments in a region where ethnic cleavages were once universally described as weak. Recently, however, indigenous activists and elected officials have increasingly shaped national political deliberations. Deborah Yashar explains the contemporary and uneven emergence of Latin American indigenous movements - addressing both why indigenous identities have become politically salient in the contemporary period and why they have translated into significant political organizations in some places and not others. She argues that ethnic politics can best be explained through a comparative historical approach that analyzes three factors: changing citizenship regimes, social networks, and political associational space. Her argument provides insight into the fragility and unevenness of Latin America's third wave democracies and has broader implications for the ways in which we theorize the relationship between citizenship, states, identity, and social action.
Latin America has among the world's highest homicide rates. The author analyzes the illicit organizations, complicit and weak states, and territorial competition that generate today's violent homicidal ecologies.
This book examines the origins of democracy and authoritarianism using a novel coalitional approach to examine two questions: What are the conditions under which actors found democracy? What are the conditions conducive to its endurance? The book explores these questions by analyzing the cases of Costa Rica and Guatemala. Costa Rica is the longest-standing and arguably the most stable democracy in Latin America, while Guatemala has among the longest and most brutal records of authoritarian rule in Latin America The author's fresh reinterpretation of these two cases demonstrates that prior to the 1950's, the two countries followed broadly similar patterns of political change and development, including seven decades of Liberal authoritarian rule beginning in the 1870's, just under a decade of democratic reforms in the 1940's, and brief but consequential counterreform movements that overthrew the democratic regimes at mid-twentieth century. Why did Costa Rica emerge with an enduring political democracy and Guatemala with authoritarian rule following these broadly similar historical trajectories? Demanding Democracy argues that the democratizing coalition's success in Costa Rica and its failure in Guatemala rested upon its capacity to redistribute elite property early on and to exercise effective political control of the countryside. The book's distinct theoretical approach integrates an analysis of the conditions fostering democracy with those conducive to its endurance. In doing so, it bridges arguments that focus on democratic transitions and those that focus on their consolidation. Moreover, it moves beyond debates about the role of structure and agency in these processes by focusing on the interaction between historical institutions that favor authoritarian rule and the political coalitions that work to remake those institutions in ways consonant with democracy.
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