Katherine Anne Isbester's Books

The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

Ten Country Studies of Division and Resilience

By: Katherine Anne Isbester

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The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

Ten Country Studies of Division and Resilience

By: Katherine Anne Isbester

Inviting in tone and organization but rigorous in its scholarship, The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America focuses on the problems, successes, and multiple forms of democracy in Latin America. The opening chapters provide readers with a theoretical and conceptual lens through which to examine the ten case studies, which focus on Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. What becomes clear throughout is that there is a paradox at the heart of Latin America's democracies. Despite decades of struggle to replace authoritarian dictatorships with electoral democracies, solid economic growth (leading up to the global credit crisis), and increased efforts by the state to extend the benefits of peace and prosperity to the poor, democracy—as a political system—is experiencing declining support, and support for authoritarianism is on the rise. The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America demonstrates the deep divisions between rulers and ruled in Latin America that undermine democratic processes, institutions, and norms.

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Page Count

417

Publisher

University of Toronto Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442693738

ISBN 13

9781442693739

Still Fighting

By: Katherine Isbester

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Still Fighting

By: Katherine Isbester

The story of the women's movement in Nicaragua is a fascinating tale of resistance, strategy, and faith. From its birth in 1977 under the Somoza dictatorship through the Sandinista revolution to the fall of the Chamorro government, the Nicaraguan women's movement has navigated revolutionary upheaval, profound changes in government, and rapidly shifting definitions of women's roles in society. Through it all, the movement has surged, regressed, and persevered, entering the twenty-first century a powerful and influential force, stretching from the grassroots to the national level.How did women in an economically underdeveloped Central American country, with little history of organizing, feminism, or democracy, succeed in creating networks, organizations, and campaigns that carved out a gender identity and challenged dominant ideologies (both revolutionary and conservative)? In Still Fighting, Katherine Isbester seeks to understand. She analyzes the complex and rich case of Nicaragua in order to learn more about the dynamics of social movements in general and women's organizing in particular. Social movement theory offers Isbester an analytic tool to explain the extraordinary evolution of the Nicaraguan movement. She theorizes that a sustainable movement is composed of three elements: a focused goal, a mobilization of resources, and an identity. The lack of any one of these weakens a social movement. Isbester shows how this theory is borne out by the experience of the Nicaraguan women's movement over the past thirty years. She demonstrates, for example, how the revolutionary government of the 1980s co-opted the women's movement, crippling its ability to create an autonomous identity, choose it own goals, and mobilize resources independent of the state. Hence, it lost legitimacy, membership, and influence. She traces the movement's resurgence in the 1990s, the result of its redefinition as an autonomous movement organized around an identity of care. Still Fighting combines social theory with field research, leading a new wave of scholarship on women in Latin America. Isbester interviewed more than a hundred key participants in the women's movement, in addition to members of the National Assembly, male leaders of other social movements, and women outside the movement. In Nicaragua, she was witness to much political organizing, enabling her to reveal the organic intricacy, as well as the historical path, of a social movement. Still Fighting will be an important book for a broad range of students and professionals in the areas of social movements, social change, gender, politics, and Latin America.

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Page Count

273

Publisher

University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published Date

ISBN 10

082297228X

ISBN 13

9780822972280

The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

Ten Country Studies of Division and Resilience

By: Katherine Anne Isbester

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The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

Ten Country Studies of Division and Resilience

By: Katherine Anne Isbester

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Page Count

417

Publisher

University of Toronto Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442693738

ISBN 13

9781442693739

Katherine Anne Porter

Conversations

By: Katherine Anne Porter

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Katherine Anne Porter

Conversations

By: Katherine Anne Porter

Collections of interviews with notable modern writers

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Page Count

226

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

0878052666

ISBN 13

9780878052660

Book's by Katherine Anne Isbester

The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

Still Fighting

Still Fighting

The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America

Katherine Anne Porter

Katherine Anne Porter

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