Political Geography: Latin America

1301. Observing the 2002 Mexico Elections

Author:: Marcela Szymanski
Publication Date:: 03-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: The Carter Center has a long history of engagement with Mexico with the shared goal of improving the electoral system in that country. In the early 1990s, the Center helped national observer groups to form and sent international observers to assist in domestic election monitoring. It also invited Mexicans to observe the U.S. elections in 1992. In 1994, the Center was among the first international observers to monitor elections in Mexico, and its observations helped shape electoral reforms that framed those and the 1997 elections, which the Center also observed.
Topic:: Democratization and Development
Political Geography:: Latin America and Mexico

1302. Observing Political Change in Venezuela: The Bolivarian Constitution and 2000 Elections

Author:: Laura Neuman and Jennifer McCoy
Publication Date:: 02-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez undertook a bold experiment to revamp its political system and address economic inequities and poverty. The country held seven votes in two years as voters chose Hugo Chávez to lead them in December 1998 and then supported his radical reform program, beginning with a new constitution. A Constitutional Assembly was elected in July 1999 to draft a new constitution, which voters approved in December 1999. Every elected position in the country was then presented to the voters again in a two-stage election in July and December 2000. While we do not believe that the election irregularities would have changed the 2000 presidential results, the significant politicization of the elections and organizational deficiencies contributed to a lack of confidence in the process and the nonpresidential results, thus leading us to characterize the July 2000 elections as flawed.
Topic:: Democratization and Development
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, and Venezuela

1303. The Bush Administration and the Future of Transatlantic Relations

Author:: Peter Trubowitz
Publication Date:: 01-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: This paper, the first of a planned two-part analysis, examines the institutions of paramilitarism, death squads, and warlords in Latin America, with a focus on the case-studies of Mexico and Peru. It begins with an overview of the small comparative literature on paramilitary movements and death squads around the world, seeking to define and clarify the terminology. The literature on "warlordism" is then reviewed, and the similarities and distinctions between paramilitaries and warlords are considered. Lastly, I examine two case-studies that have not, as yet, received extended attention in the comparative literature: Mexico and Colombia. The paper concludes by summarizing the findings and charting a course for future investigations.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: United States, Colombia, Latin America, and Mexico

1304. Nongovernmental Terrorism in Latin America: Re-examining Old Assumptions

Author:: Andreas Feldmann and Maiju Perälä
Publication Date:: 07-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: For years nongovernmental terrorism in Latin America was considered to be an epiphenomenon of the Cold War, and consequently explained in terms of that war. The persistence of terrorism throughout the region in the 1990s not only has indicated that many of our assumptions concerning the causes of terrorism were misleading, but also has lead scholars to reexamine the phenomenon of nongovernmental political violence. This paper investigates the validity of a number of hypotheses recently explored in the literature by applying a pooled time series cross section regression analysis to data from seventeen Latin American countries between 1980 and 1995. Findings indicate that nongovernmental terrorist acts in Latin America are more likely to occur in countries characterized by widespread state human rights violations. Likewise, evidence is found that nongovernmental terrorism in the region tends to be more prevalent in countries characterized by electoral and associational liberties than by restrictive dictatorships. Association between economic performance or structural economic conditions and the incidence of terrorism is not substantiated by the findings.
Topic:: Cold War, Democratization, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1305. Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: The Argentine Justicialista Party In Comparative Perspective

Author:: Steven Levitsky
Publication Date:: 07-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This article seeks to explain the success or failure of Latin American labor-based parties in adapting to the contemporary challenges of economic liberalization and working class decline. It focuses on party organization, and specifically, on informal and under-institutionalized organizational forms. The article's central claim is that under-institutionalized organizational structures may facilitate party adaptation in a context of environmental crisis. Thus, mass populist parties, which lack the bureaucratic constraints that tend to inhibit change in better institutionalized labor-based parties, may possess a distinctive advantage in the neoliberal period. Although these parties' deep roots in society provide them with relative electoral stability, other populist legacies, such as fluid internal structures, non-bureaucratic hierarchies, and centralized leaderships, yield a high degree of strategic flexibility. The article applies this argument to the case of the Argentine Justicialista Party (PJ), a mass populist party that adapted with striking success in the 1980s and 1990s. In the coalitional realm, the poorly institutionalized nature of the PJ's party-union linkage allowed reformers to easily dismantle traditional mechanisms of labor participation, which contributed to the PJ's rapid transformation from a labor-dominated party into a patronage-based party. In the programmatic realm, the PJ's non-bureaucratic hierarchy and under-institutionalized leadership bodies provided President Carlos Menem with substantial room for maneuver in carrying out a neoliberal strategy that, while at odds with Peronism's traditional program, was critical to the party's survival as a major political force.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1306. Managing Security Challenges in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Author:: Sheila Coutts and Kelvin Ong
Publication Date:: 06-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:: While a functioning security sector provides the cornerstone for stable and democratic post-conflict societies, the record of the international community in establishing this critical function is mixed. Despite repeatedly having to manage the immediate post-conflict situation in various peace operations in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, the international community still fails to take the state of the local security sector adequately into account when planning its own intervention.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Human Rights, International Law, International Organization, Migration, and United Nations
Political Geography:: Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America

1307. Aftermath: Women's Organizations In Postconflict El Salvador

Author:: Shelley Sperry
Publication Date:: 04-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:: WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS proliferated during and after the civil war that ravaged El Salvador from 1979 through 1991. By war's end, more than a hundred different women's organizations existed in El Salvador, each generating local and regional projects and frequently working in the national political arena as well. Unlike women's movements in other Latin American nations, the women's movement in El Salvador has grown stronger in the post conflict period of emerging democracy. The two movements—democracy and women's rights—appear to be mutually supportive. The case of El Salvador suggests that helping women's groups establish autonomy and stability during, rather than following, a conflict may be crucial to ensuring future women's activism and a vital democratic civil society.
Topic:: Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, and Politics
Political Geography:: Latin America, Central America, and El Salvador

1308. The Guatemalan Peace Process: The Accords and Their Accomplishments

Author:: Luis Pásara
Publication Date:: 12-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:: Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, suffered an internal armed conflict for 36 years. A long and difficult peace negotiation process ended in 1996 with the signing of the most comprehensive and ambitious peace accords in the history of peace agreements. Five years later, the accomplishments of the accords are limited. This article examines the social context in which the accords were negotiated and implemented. It also explores some of its accomplishments and shortcomings, and suggests the first lessons learned.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, International Law, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Latin America and Central America

1309. Caribbean Tourism: Igniting the Engines of Sustainable Growth

Author:: Anthony T. Bryan
Publication Date:: 11-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: Tourism drives economic growth in ways that make it one of the best engines for job creation and development for poor countries that possess natural beauty and relevant infrastructure. The industry is highly labor intensive and encourages entrepreneurship. Under its ambit, property owners, restaurants, and local suppliers of goods and services, among others, develop the habits of risk taking without which no economy can realize its full potential. Tourism holds out the prospect of a better life for those stakeholders who make money from it. Not unlike trade, it improves an economy's competitiveness. Trade does so because it stimulates local suppliers to match the quality and variety of imported goods. Tourism does so because returning travelers to a destination demand the goods and services they have seen in other countries (Elliott 2001).
Topic:: Development, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Latin America, and Caribbean

1310. Protest and Collaboration: Transnational Civil Society Networks and the Politics of Summitry and Free Trade in the Americas

Author:: Patricio Korzeniewicz and William C. Smith
Publication Date:: 09-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: This paper examines the politics of hemispheric integration exemplified by the Summits of the Americas held in Miami (1994), Santiago (1998), and Quebec (2001) and the negotiations over the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Our basic premise is that political and institutional arrangements articulating state, society, and economy in Latin America are currently in the midst of a process of reconfiguration unleashed by the acceleration of globalization and attendant crises of state-centered development strategies. More specifically, we believe the Americas are witnessing the emergence of an ensemble of new social and political actors, among the most salient of which are new social movements and civil society organizations (CSOs), organized in networks operating at the domestic, regional, and global levels.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States, America, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, North America, and Miami

1311. The Impact of MERCOSUR on the Automobile Industry

Author:: Jerry Haar and Thomas A. O'Keefe
Publication Date:: 09-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: A transformation of the automotive industry, particularly the segment involved in production of finished vehicles, has taken place in the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur/Mercado Comum do Sul—MERCOSUR/MER-COSUL) region of South America, at a time when MERCOSUR member states opened their economies to global competition and to participation in an ambitious subregional economic integration project. This Agenda Paper provides an overview of the factors that have contributed to this recent industry transformation. The paper also examines the factors involved in the formal incorporation of the automotive sector into the MERCOSUR project and discusses the impact this development is like-ly have on the subregional automobile industry,
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States, South America, Latin America, and North America

1312. Preferential Treatment in Trade: Is There Any Room Left in the Americas?

Author:: Fernando Masi
Publication Date:: 08-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: This paper evaluates the costs and benefits of changes brought by the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on special and differential treatment (S); shows how these changes affected the new regional integration processes in the American continent; and examines whether this issue is still a priority of developing countries' agendas. Large concessions offered by developing countries in exchange for access to markets automatically led to “trade graduation.” Thus, S has lost its former significance among developing countries. Moreover, nonreciprocal treatment was retained for least developed countries, which do not even enjoy this type of treatment under the so-called “new trade-related issues” of services, investment, and intellectual property rights.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States, America, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

1313. Making and Unmaking Authoritarian Peru: Re-election, Resistance, and Regime Transition

Author:: Catherine M. Conaghan
Publication Date:: 05-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: One of the time-honored constitutional traditions of Latin America—the ban on immediate presidential re-election—gave way to political change in the 1990s. Cloaked in controversy, the trend began in Peru. In 1992, President Alberto Fujimori led an auto-coup (auto-golpe) that closed Congress and suspended the 1979 Constitution. The auto-coup eventually led to a new Constitution in 1993. The new Constitution lifted the ban on immediate presidential re-election, allowing a president to stay in office for two consecutive five-year terms.
Topic:: Democratization and Government
Political Geography:: Latin America and Peru

1314. When Democracy Isn't All that Democratic: Social Exclusion and the Limits of the Public Sphere in Latin America

Author:: Philip Oxhorn
Publication Date:: 04-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: During much of the 1970s and 1980s, the principal political struggles throughout Latin America revolved around the creation of democratic political regimes based on the right to vote. Now that this right has been effectively established in virtually every country of the region, 1 the limits of political democracy as traditionally defined are becoming increasingly apparent (Oxhorn and Ducatenzeiler 1998; Agüero and Stark 1998; Chalmers et al. 1997). These countries are indisputably political democracies, yet the quality of democratic rule leaves much to be desired. Recent studies of the democratic deficits in Latin America have focused on a variety of dimensions (including extremes of economic inequality, poverty, growing levels of criminality, limits on citizenship rights, the weakness of civil society, problems of representation, and the weakness of political parties, among others)
Topic:: Democratization, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: Latin America and Caribbean

1315. Free Trade and Worker Displacement: The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act and the Case of NAFTA

Author:: Jerry Haar and Antonio Garrastazu
Publication Date:: 02-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: Trade liberalization, a fundamental feature of U.S. economic policy since the end of the Second World War, has increasingly become a contentious domestic political issue during the last decade. Proponents and opponents of free trade transcend political party affiliation, industry, occupation, geographical locale, income level, age, and other socioeconomic and demographic factors. In addition, the U.S. public and its leaders for the most part hold qualified, mixed, or inconsistent opinions about trade liberalization and the larger and rapidly increasing phenomenon known as globalization. In a February 9-14, 2000, nationwide poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, a majority of respondents (64 percent compared to 27 percent) stated that free trade with other countries is good for the United States. On the other hand, an NBC News/ W all Street Journal poll several months later asked interviewees to respond to the following statement: “Foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy because cheap imports from abroad have hurt wages and cost jobs here at home.” Forty-eight percent of the respondents answered that it has been “bad” and 34 percent “good.”
Topic:: Industrial Policy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Latin America

1316. Thinking About Environmental Security: Southeast Asia and the Americas in Comparative Perspective

Author:: Frank McNeil and Joseph Stark
Publication Date:: 10-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: This paper is styled a “work-in-progress” with good reason. It is the latest, not entirely ripe fruit of a North-South Center project, the “commonalities” study, about the shared challenges facing the developing nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and the developing nations of Asia, particularly those of Southeast Asia. These views have taken their shape, over more than three years, from the authors' reflections about their extensive interviews in both regions with policy “influentials” and knowledgeable academics, as well as through participation in occasional conferences.
Topic:: Security and Environment
Political Geography:: America, Latin America, Caribbean, and Southeast Asia

1317. Brazil — IMF Agreement

Publication Date:: 08-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The real is stabilising against the dollar following the announcement of the latest draft agreement between Brazil and the IMF on August 3. The provision of additional resources by the Fund is designed to support the value of the real and prevent the Brazilian economy from sliding into recession.
Topic:: International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and United Nations
Political Geography:: Brazil and Latin America

1318. Uruguay — Defensive Economics

Publication Date:: 08-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: In response to regional instability and two years of recession, Uruguay's government has taken measures to stimulate economic growth.
Topic:: International Organization and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Latin America

1319. A New Era in Mexico?

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 02-2001
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: Last July, Mexico underwent a medium-sized political earthquake—it elected Vicente Fox, candidate of an opposition alliance, to a six-year presidential term. In so doing, it ended seventy-one years of hegemonic rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and unleashed a host of possibilities for the nation’s future. What are those possibilities, and what do they mean—for Mexico and the United States? The truth is that nobody—not even veteran Mexico-watchers—is quite sure. Fox himself is a man of paradox: His relationship with his own party is ambiguous, to say the least, and the platform on which he ran points both left and right, as do his cabinet appointments. Moreover, Mexico itself, long in the thrall of a kind of benevolent authoritarianism, is new to the art of divided government. While there may be some changes in the relationship with the United States, tensions and conflicts based on history, geography, and the vast asymmetries of wealth are bound to persist.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Politics, Authoritarianism, and Elections
Political Geography:: Latin America and Mexico

1320. An Emerging Populist Threat?

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 06-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: On May 14, Jackson Diehl, the deputy foreign editor of the Washington Post, raised an intriguing question in an op-ed for that newspaper: Is Latin America about to “drift back toward its one-time status as semi-hostile territory for the United States”? Some of the evidence he cited was certainly enough to give pause. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, that country’s former Marxist president—voted out of office in 1990—seemed poised to finally regain power later this year. In Peru, Alan García, the leftist-populist windbag—the consummate Latin demagogue, almost a caricature of the type—who drove his country to the verge of collapse in the 1980s, has reemerged as a presidential possibility in a runoff scheduled for June 3. In Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the perennial standard-bearer of the Left, is leading in the polls for next year’s presidential race. “Even in El Salvador,” Diehl writes, President Bush “may see the election of former FMLN guerrillas.” As to Venezuela, the machinations of its president, Hugo Chávez, hardly require comment; he makes no secret of the fact that his principal foreign policy objective is to forge a new, worldwide, anti-U.S. alliance.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Economics, Populism, and Hugo Chavez
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, and Venezuela

1321. Venezuela’s Tinfoil “Revolution”

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 04-2001
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: After forty years of politics as usual, Venezuela has suddenly become an object of curiosity to the world’s press. The reason is President Hugo Chávez, a forty-six-year-old former lieutenant colonel who first came to the attention of Venezuelans in 1992 when he and a group of other junior officers attempted to overthrow the government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Amnestied by Pérez’s successor, Chávez began a political career of his own, and in 1998, running as the candidate of the so-called Fifth Republic Revolutionary Movement (MVR), he was elected by a decisive majority. Two and a half years later, he is still an enigma—to Venezuelans, to the United States, and to everyone else. Given the centrality of his country to the oil producers’ cartel and, even more, given the current dependence of the United States on Venezuelan oil, he merits a closer look.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Government, Natural Resources, and Hugo Chavez
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, and Venezuela

1322. Peru: Yet Another Transition

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 03-2001
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: Last November Peruvian politics were turned upside down by the revelation that the president’s security chief had been bribing members of congress, other prominent political personalities, and the media. The “smoking gun” was a series of filmed videos actually recording the shady transactions, involving millions of dollars in one of Latin America’s poorest nations. Popular indignation was so great that the president, Alberto Fujimori, diverted a flight to the Asia-Pacific conference in Brunei and went to Tokyo instead, where he precipitously claimed Japanese citizenship and asked for political asylum. At home, one of the strongest political machines in Latin America was dismantled almost overnight. Congress deposed the president, named an interim chief executive and prime minister, and called for new elections on April 8. Thus ends an era in Peruvian politics, one rich in paradox and moral ambiguity. What, one wonders, is next?
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Corruption, and Politics
Political Geography:: Latin America and Peru

1323. Latin Democracy and Its (Increasing) Discontents

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 09-2001
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: Though summer is still with us in the northern hemisphere, Latin America languishes deep in the winter of its discontent. Ten years after the international scene was transformed by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, many Latin Americans have become disillusioned with their role in the new world order. The principal problem is that in spite of vigorous, in some cases drastic, market reforms, most of the region’s economies are in the doldrums. More to the point, in spite of a significant return of foreign investment to the area in the early 1990s, the number of Latin Americans living in poverty has increased. Public services have deteriorated or in some cases even disappeared. And crime is rampant everywhere, even in cities such as Buenos Aires, where until ten years ago inhabitants boasted-with reason-that their streets were safer at 3 a.m. than those of New York or Los Angeles in daytime.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Democracy, and Investment
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1324. Nicaragua on the Brink–of What?

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 10-2001
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: On November 4, Nicaraguans will go to the polls to select a president, vice president, and all sixty-six members of their unicameral congress–an event that on its own merits would hardly deserve much attention on the part of foreign observers. But the drama unfolding in that tiny country is characteristic of many small (and not so small) Latin American countries today: the inability of democracy alone to address effectively some of the fundamental problems of society. Nicaragua also provides some interesting insight into the peculiar pathologies that afflict postrevolutionary states, and as such may provide some light on what we can expect in post-Castro Cuba and even, eventually, in post—Chávez Venezuela.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, and Democracy
Political Geography:: Cuba, Latin America, and Nicaragua

1325. Privatization and the Distribution of Assets in Brazil

Author:: Roberto Macedo
Publication Date:: 07-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: This paper focuses on the Brazilian privatization program undertaken in the 1990s, one of the largest in the world, as a result of which over US$71 billion worth of equity capital and US$17 billion of debt owed by the former state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were transferred to private owners, both at the federal and state levels.
Topic:: Development, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, and Latin America

1326. Korean Détente: A Threat to Washington's Anachronistic Military Presence?

Author:: Doug Bandow
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The recent summit meeting between South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il raises the prospect that the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula may at last be coming to an end. Although the latest effort at détente could ultimately abort as did similar initiatives in the 1970s and early 1990s, North Korea's dire economic straits probably leave the Stalinist state little choice this time but to open itself to the outside world and seek trade and investment from its prosperous, democratic South Korean rival.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Washington, Israel, Asia, South Korea, Latin America, and Korean Peninsula

1327. Toward Greater Peace and Security in Colombia: Forging a Constructive U.S. Policy

Author:: Michael Shifter, Bob Graham, and Brent Scowcroft
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: At the dawn of the 21st century, few countries in the world are as deeply troubled as Colombia. This Andean nation—the third most populous in Latin America—is experiencing crises on many fronts. But at the same time the country possesses hopeful elements— the product of a resourceful and resilient people—coupled with an opportunity to forge a more democratic, peaceful, just, and prosperous nation.
Political Geography:: Colombia and Latin America

1328. The Carter Center News, January-June 2000

Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: During the first six months of this year, four Latin American countries exercised democracy by scheduling elections. The Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela laid the groundwork for electoral processes, though only the Dominican Republic and Mexico actually held elections as planned (see also “What Latin America's Elections Really Mean,” Page 4). In all four cases, however, Carter Center delegates were on site to monitor the proceedings. Below are the Center's observations, listing the most recent election first.
Topic:: Development, Environment, Human Rights, Migration, Science and Technology, and Third World
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, Venezuela, Mexico, and Peru

1329. Challenges to Democracy in the Americas

Author:: Hugo Chávez, Manuel Antonio Garretón M., Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Kenneth H. Jr. MacKay, Philip Oxhorn, Kenneth Roberts, Matthew Soberg Shugart, Jorge Vargas Cullel, Laurence Whitehead, and Adolfo E. Nanclares
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: Recent events in Latin American and the Carribean, including the election of a former coup leader in Venezuela, the third-term candidacy of Peru President Alberto Fujimori, a coup in Ecuador, and the failed constitutional reform in Guatemala and subsequent election of a party led by retired military officials, have led to serious concerns about the direction of democracy in the region. Americas Program's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas selected the conference topic as an expression of their concern. Held in October 2000 at The Carter Center, the conference addressed the resurgence of populist leaders, the decline of political parties, the need for greater public security, and the many ways the military continues to intervene in Latin American politics.
Topic:: Democratization, Development, Human Rights, Migration, and Politics
Political Geography:: America and Latin America

1330. Coexistence, Consensus, Competition, Conflict: Interservice Contestation

Author:: Varun Sahni
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: This paper explores one of the lesser-researched aspects of Latin American military politics, namely, relations among the three military services - army, navy and air force. This is done through a study of the Argentine Navy and its relations with the Army and Air Force of that country. The analysis proceeds in three stages. First, the article classifies issue-areas on the basis of four variables: resource and/or prestige implications, symbolic and/or functional importance, zero-sum contestation, and iterative contestations. Second, the article suggests a four-fold typology of inter-service contestation - coexistence, consensus, competition, and conflict - that is closely linked to the nature of the issue-area. Finally, the validity of the typology is tested through the study of four cases: naval management of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA); naval domination of national policy on Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, the South Atlantic and Beagle Channel islands and Antarctica; the annual inter-service competition over the military budget; and the long-standing rivalry between the Nave and Air Force over military aviation. The four cases studied demonstrate that the taxonomy proposed in this article more than adequately classifies and explains the patterns of inter-service contestation in Argentina, thereby raising questions about its applicability to other military-dominated polities.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:: Argentina, South America, and Latin America

1331. A Theoretical and Statistical Assessment of the Structural Reform in Latin America

Author:: Jorge A. Schiavon
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: This working paper argues that the institutional variation between Latin American countries is one of the central variables that explains the huge differences in the implementation, and level of consolidation of the structural reform process in Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s, an issue still unexplained in a satisfactory way in the existing literature. The argument is tested and supported using a statistical model that includes macroeconomic indicators in the explained side of the equation (structural reform), and constitutional, electoral, and party system data on the explanatory side (institutional configuration).
Topic:: Development and Government
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, and Central America

1332. In Focus: Bolivia: Eradicating Democracy

Author:: George Ann Potter and Linda Farthing
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:: In September 2000, Bolivia, South America's poorest country, was rocked by a series of civilian protests, including roadblocks throughout the country. Unionists, teachers, peasant coca farmers, and others have demanded that the Bolivian and U.S. governments stop trying to completely eradicate coca growing and cease construction of three new military bases in the Chapare region. Among the other demands, protesters also want the government to improve alternative development programs in the coca growing region. In mid-October, the two sides reached a 19-point “truce”, but protesters vowed to reinstate the roadblocks in 30 days if the government did not adhere to the the agreement.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: United States, South America, Latin America, and Bolivia

1333. In Focus: Peru: Democracy

Author:: Coletta A. Youngers
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:: Since taking office in 1990, President Fujimori has concentrated power in his own hands, greatly strengthened the role of the armed forces and SIN, and thwarted political opposition through bribery and intimidation. The recent Peruvian elections failed to meet even the most minimal international standards for a free and fair process, and Fujimori embarked upon an unconstitutional third term, which left the country deeply polarized. Fujimori's decision to call for new elections and dismantle SIN is an important step toward putting Peru back on the path to democratization; however, the situation remains very tense and the position of the military and intelligence services uncertain.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:: United States, South America, Latin America, and Peru

1334. Foreign Policy In Focus: Colombia in Crisis

Author:: Carlos Salinas
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:: Violence and warfare in Colombia are often blamed on the drug trade, but the roots run much deeper. The overwhelming majority of victims are noncombatant civilians. Since 1987, more than 35,000 noncombatant civilians have been murdered or have “disappeared.” Despite rich natural resources, Colombia's wealth is unevenly distributed, with some sectors of the population in deep misery.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: United States, Colombia, South America, and Latin America

1335. The Impact of an Indigenous Counterpublic Sphere on the Practice of Democracy: The Taller de Historia Oral Andina in Bolivia

Author:: Marcia Stephenson
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This paper analyzes the impact of an indigenous counterpublic sphere in contemporary Bolivia. It argues that the elaboration of the indigenous counterpublic sphere as an arena of oppositional consciousness locates agency in indigenous peoples and challenges prevailing practices that would relegate them to the category of premodern Other. Examining specifically the work carried out by the Aymara nongovernmental organization known as the Taller de Historia Oral Andina [Andean Oral History Workshop], the essay underscores the significance of the indigenous counterpublic sphere in Bolivia not only as a discursive arena but also as an autonomous spatial or territorial arena where Andean cultural and political identities can be enacted and legitimated.
Topic:: Civil Society and Government
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, and Bolivia

1336. Competitiveness and Environmental Policies: The Cases of Chile and Korea

Author:: Claudio Maggi and Kern Soo Yoon
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:: Competitiveness and sustainability share a common aim: to use resources more efficiently. In the long run, unsustainable production patterns may lead to the depletion or degradation of natural resources, and that means loss of future competitiveness.
Topic:: Environment and International Political Economy
Political Geography:: Israel, South America, Latin America, Korea, and Chile

1337. Colombia at the Crossroads

Author:: Aleksandar D. Jovovic
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:: The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy hosted the spring session of the Schlesinger Working Group on the topic of strategic surprise in Colombia. After a presentation on four potential scenarios that may face Colombia (see next page), Schlesinger Working Group core members and Colombia specialists examined the key factors driving events in this conflict-scarred country, as well as possible outcomes for current political initiatives. Among other issues, the participants touched on the range and dynamics of the present conflict, its effects on Colombian institutions, the country's neighbors, as well as on the role of powerful outside players, primarily the United States. Upon defining these key factors, participants identified a broad outline for future policy towards Colombia, which would safeguard key U.S. interests, defined as an end to the conflict, political and economic stability in the region, and the suppression of the drug trade. The following report is based on the informal and general findings of the group and is therefore not a consensus document.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: United States, Colombia, South America, and Latin America

1338. U.S. Immigration Policy: Unilateral and Cooperative Responses to Undocumented Immigration

Author:: Marc R. Rosenblum
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Abstract:: This paper addresses the problem of undocumented immigration to the United States from Mexico, and current and proposed policies designed to control these undocumented flows. Undocumented migration from Mexico is a subject that already receives disproportionate attention in the sense that many and probably most undocumented immigrants in the United States do not illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border, yet INS enforcement efforts focus overwhelmingly on these border crossers. Although undocumented Mexican migration to the United States is disproportionately targeted, the subject merits analytical attention for three reasons. First, undocumented immigration from Mexico to the United States is the largest illicit migration flow in the world, at about one million crossings per year. Second, partly for this reason, U.S. enforcement efforts devoted to controlling Mexican immigration cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and have resulted in the transformation of the INS into the largest civilian gun-carrying force in the world. And third, immigration remains central to U.S.-Mexican bilateral relations (Binational Commission 1997, Rico 1992, Rosenblum 1998) as U.S. immigration policy-making takes on an increasingly transnational character (Rosenblum 1999 and forthcoming).
Topic:: Migration
Political Geography:: United States, Latin America, Central America, North America, and Mexico

1339. Reducing Urban and Industrial Pollution in Chile

Author:: Joseph M. Lieberson, Mark G. Hodges, and Gene M. Owens
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:: In Chile's capital of Santiago, the summer sun rises over a hazy, smog-filled sky. The sky darkens as the day progresses and often turns a light brown. In winter, air quality is even worse, and visibility drops sharply. A ring of mountains and thermal inversions trap pollution in a choking cloud over the city. But the mountains and air currents are not the whole problem. Twenty years ago the air was relatively clean. That was before economic growth accelerated sharply. A rapid increase in industrial production and a major increase in truck, bus, and automobile traffic are all pumping pollutants into the air. The result is a high level of respiratory problems, sickness, and premature death.
Topic:: Economics, Environment, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, and Chile

1340. Urban Violence in São Paulo

Author:: Nancy Cardia
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: Today homicide is the highest cause of death of young people in Brazil. Nancy Cardia, senior researcher at the University of São Paulo's Center for the Study of Violence, examines urban violence in São Paulo arguing that violence has become a major public health problem.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Development, Economics, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1341. Governance, Urban Environment, and the Growing Role of Civil Society

Author:: María Elena Ducci
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: In urban areas in developing countries, the current experience indicates that well organized and well-informed citizens have become the best motors for positive change within cities and it is the state that has fallen out of touch, in spite of constant declarations about the importance of citizens' participation. María Elena Ducci explains how in Latin America, the urban social movements that focused on the fight for land and housing from the sixties to the eighties today have become citizens' groups seeking to maintain and improve quality of life. Once again, territory has become the focus for city inhabitants who are discovering new ways of being social and becoming the political protagonists of their own lives in the city. According to Ducci, the dynamic of urban politics is changing as these new players—the citizens' groups that are defending their urban environment—come to the fore with enormous strength and energy. They oppose and block public and private urban projects of enormous scope, which raises costs and lengthens time frames for the companies involved. This paper focuses on how these groups, which demand a better quality of life and more equality, are working in an increasingly globalized and polarized city.
Topic:: Civil Society, Economics, Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1342. Monitoring the Dynamics of Democratization in Korea: The Korea Democracy Barometer Surveys

Author:: Doh Chull Shin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The past decade has witnessed a growth in major efforts to study mass reactions to democratic regime change on a global scale. Since 1991 Professor Richard Rose, of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, has been conducting the New Democracies Barometer surveys and the New Russia and Baltic Barometer surveys to compare the mass experience of democratization in post-Communist countries. Since 1995 Dr. Mata Lagos, of Market Opinion Research International in Santiago, Chile, has been conducting the Latinobarometro surveys on an annual basis to trace and compare the levels and sources of popular support for democracy and democratic reforms in 15 Latin American countries along with Spain. Most recently, in1999, Professor Michael Bratton of Michigan State University in the United States and Robert Mattes of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa launched the Afrobarometer to map mass attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil society in a dozen African countries.
Political Geography:: Africa, Russia, United States, Latin America, Spain, Korea, and Scotland

1343. Moving Beyond Privatization in Latin America: The Government/Business Relationship

Author:: Robert Grosse
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The outcomes of regulatory policies and regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico since 1990 in the telecommunications, electric power, and banking sectors are explored in this paper. How should governments regulate these oligopolistic industries, once ownership of the sectors has been passed to private hands? How can governments manage these relationships successfully and see that the greatest benefits accrue to the country? What institutional structures can best handle the problems that arise in these situations? The paper addresses these questions and concludes that, while privatizations in these sectors have been predominantly positive in the 1990s, there is still considerable room for more competition.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: Latin America, Central America, and Mexico

1344. A Dollarization Blueprint for Argentina

Author:: Steve H. Hanke and Kurt Schuler
Publication Date:: 03-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: President Carlos Menem of Argentina has advocated replacing the Argentine peso with the dollar. Dollarization would benefit Argentina because it would eliminate the peso-dollar exchange-rate risk, lower interest rates, and stimulate economic growth.
Topic:: Economics and International Political Economy
Political Geography:: Argentina, South America, and Latin America

1345. In Praise and Criticism of Mexico's Pension Reform

Author:: L. Jacobo Rodriguez
Publication Date:: 04-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The privatization of Mexico's government-run pay-as-you-go social security system, which went into effect in July 1997, is the Ernesto Zedillo administration's most important structural reform. It is a measure that, if successful, will help bring much-needed social and economic stability. The Mexican peso crisis of 1994–95 underscore d the fragility of Mexico's economy, its need for independent institutions, and its need for a large pool of long-term domestic savings. An increase in the rate of private savings in Mexico, which this reform will promote, would make the Mexican economy less dependent on short-term fluctuations of international capital flows and, thus, more stable. More important still, the privatization of social security will erect one of the basic pillars of a free society by turning Mexico into a country of property-owning workers.
Topic:: Economics, Government, International Political Economy, and Privatization
Political Geography:: Latin America and Mexico

1346. Social Funds in Stabilization and Adjustment Programmes

Author:: Giovanni Cornia
Publication Date:: 04-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: Well before the introduction of adjustment-related Social Funds (SFs), many developing countries had developed a variety of safety nets comprising food subsidies, nutrition interventions, employment-based schemes and targeted transfers. Middle-income and a few low-income countries had also achieved extensive coverage in the field of social insurance. In countries committed to fighting poverty, these programmes absorbed considerable resources (2-5 per cent of GDP, excluding social insurance) and had a large impact on job creation, income support and nutrition: for instance, in 1983, Chile's public works programme absorbed 13 per cent of the labour force. Their ability to expand quickly depended on a permanent structure of experienced staff, good portfolios of projects, clear management rules, adequate allocation of domestic resources, supply-driven execution and, with the exception of food subsidies, fairly good targeting.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, South Asia, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and Chile

1347. Development Discontinuities: Leaders and Intermediaries in Producers' Associations

Author:: Tito Bianchi
Publication Date:: 10-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: The development literature considers associations an important economic development tool that allows producers to pursue their economic welfare collectively and through participatory means. This paper comparatively analyses the experience of three associations of agricultural producers in the underdeveloped regions of Brazil and Italy that were successful in this economic development task. Their experience, however, challenges a commonly held view about the participatory nature of associations.
Topic:: Development and Economics
Political Geography:: Europe, Brazil, South America, and Latin America

1348. Currency Boards or Dollarization — Solutions or Traps

Author:: John Chown
Publication Date:: 08-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Currency boards have been suggested for Russia, and adopted elsewhere in eastern Europe. Brazil's fixed rate has had to be abandoned, but Argentina is considering replacing its currency board with dollarization, and suggesting this solution for the rest of Latin America. Fixed exchange-rate regimes (and the crawling peg in Russia) have collapsed in Southeast Asia but Hong Kong, which had a formal currency board, has (so far) survived.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

1349. Changing Relations between Party, Military, and Government in North Korea and Their Impact on Policy Direction

Author:: Jinwook Choi
Publication Date:: 07-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: North Korea has recently exhibited some noteworthy changes. In September 1998 it amended its constitution to change the power structure and introduced a number of progressive clauses. It also began to use the slogan “A Strong and Prosperous Nation,” which emphasizes economic prosperity as well as political, ideological, and military strength.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, Asia, and Latin America

1350. Panama Canal Transition: The Final Implementation

Author:: C. Richard Nelson, Jr. Gillespie, Brandon Grove Jr., and David E. McGiffert
Publication Date:: 07-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: The implications of the transfer of the Panama Canal go well beyond U.S. relations with Panama. This complex transition provides an important lesson for Latin America and the rest of the world on how countries of vastly different size and outlook can work together. The success of this 20 year process lies mainly in first identifying the primary common interest of the United States, Panama and the major canal users: access to an open, safe and efficient canal. Important but secondary concerns, including U.S. military access to facilities in Panama, were addressed during the process but never were allowed to displace the primary interest. By focusing on this clear, compelling key objective, both Panama and the United States were able to accommodate fundamental changes in the political, economic and security context, including several changes in administrations, tough negotiations and even a military confrontation.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Latin America

1351. Transparency Project

Author:: Jennifer McCoy and Shelley McConnell
Publication Date:: 05-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: The Carter Center's Americas Program and its Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas have initiated a multiyear project to work with governments and civil society to develop monitoring mechanisms to help combat corruption in government transactions and serve as a model for the rest of the world. Greater "transparency" in government-business interactions can improve investor confidence, spur economic growth, provide better public services to the population, and increase public confidence in democratic institutions. At a high-level conference May 4-5, 1999, leaders from across the hemisphere came to The Carter Center to evaluate specific anti-corruption efforts and seek commitments from other governments to implement similar strategies in their own countries. In preparation for that conference, The Carter Center partnered with three countries—Ecuador, Jamaica, and Costa Rica—to develop and assess specific anti-corruption tools.
Topic:: Democratization, Development, Human Rights, and Migration
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean

1352. Growth, Poverty and Inequality in Latin America

Author:: William Smith and Roberto Korzeniewicz
Publication Date:: 05-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University
Abstract:: The crystallization of the so-called “Washington Consensus” in the late 1980s sparked intense debates regarding the likely social impact of macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment. Academic critics and political opponents argued that Washingtonian reforms, and neoclassical economics more broadly, lacked a coherent theory of growth, and were bound to result in long-term negative trends in popular welfare and social inequality. Advocates of neoliberal restructuring, in contrast, while recognizing that market-oriented reforms could lead initially to a decline in output and standards of living, were confident that these reforms eventually would lead to sustainable growth and, as a consequence, greater equality and enhanced social welfare. A decade later we revisit this debate to evaluate recent trends in economic growth, poverty and inequality, and to assess accompanying shifts in the theoretical, policy, and political terrains.
Topic:: Development and Economics
Political Geography:: Washington, South America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean

1353. Challenging Traditional Participation in Brazil: The Goals of Participatory Budgeting

Author:: Pedro Jacobi
Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: Using the mechanism of “participatory budgeting” implemented in the city of Porto Alegre, Pedro Jacobi analyses a new practice of resource allocation in several Brazilian urban areas. He comes to the conclusion that participatory budgeting is an effective tool in the democratization of the city's management— helping to break old patterns of clientelist relations. According to Jacobi, the new mechanism promotes decentralization of municipal decision-making and increases public control over the city's investment policies.
Topic:: Economics, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1354. Territorial Exclusion and Violence: The Case of São Paulo, Brazil

Author:: Raquel Rolnik
Publication Date:: 04-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: One of the single most defining features of Brazilian cities today is their dual built environment: one landscape is produced by private entrepreneurs and contained within the framework of detailed urban legislation, and the other, three times larger, is self-produced by the poor and situated in a gray area between the legal and the illegal. In addition to being an expression of economic and social disparities, this contrast has profound implications for the form and function of the cities. The sprawl of what are here termed “precarious peripheries” has led to a great disconnection of poorly urbanized spaces from the city center where jobs and cultural and economic opportunities are concentrated. The effects of this persistent “territorial exclusion” are devastating and occur in both the peripheries and the city center.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Industrial Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, and Latin America

1355. Latin American Trade Strategy at Century's End

Author:: Carol Wise
Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: This paper tackles the question of trade strategy and differential economic performance in Latin America, with a focus on the four countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico -- most important for the successful completion of a full Western Hemispheric integration scheme. The analysis distinguishes between a “standard” market strategy that assigns the task of economic adjustment to market forces and a “competitive” strategy that more actively employs a range of public policies to facilitate adjustment and correct for instances of market failure. The choices of strategy are explored against the backdrop of international pressures, government-business relations, and institutional reform within the state. Two main conclusions are drawn: first, the competitive strategy strongly correlates with more favorable macro-and microeconomic outcomes and, second, mediocre economic performance under a standard market strategy has undermined the spirit of collective action that will be necessary to forge ahead at the hemispheric level.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Mexico, and Chile

1356. Collective Management of International Financial Crises

Author:: Saori N. Katada
Publication Date:: 07-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
Abstract:: The world has experienced many financial crises. Despite numerous research and policy efforts in prevention to present them at of large scale, the global economy has not seen economists' (and investors') Nirvana of financial globalization without the occasional crises. On the contrary, the increasing dynamism and changing nature of financial flows across national borders seem to have created a larger number of new problems for creditors, debtors and international financial institutions. That has typically been true for middle income countries in Latin America and Asia and, very recently, in Eastern Europe, which have been integrated into the international financial system. During the two decades between the late 1970s and the late 1990s, three major sets of financial crises originated from those middle income countries, intensifying concerns for international financial stability.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Europe, Israel, East Asia, Latin America, Central America, and North America

1357. Ideas, Culture and Political Analysis Workshop

Author:: Thomas Risse, Sarah Mendelson, Neil Fligstein, Jan Kubik, Jeffrey T. Checkel, Consuelo Cruz, Kathleen McNamara, Sheri Berman, Frank Dobbin, Mark Blyth, Ken Pollack, George Steinmetz, Daniel Philpott, Gideon Rose, Martha Finnemore, Kathryn Skikkink, Marie Gottschalk, John Kurt Jacobsen, and Anna Seleny
Publication Date:: 05-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Social Science Research Council
Abstract:: The last decade or so has witnessed a resurgence in scholarship employing ideational and cultural factors in the analysis of political life. This scholarship has addressed political phenomena across a variety of national and international settings, with studies of European politics being particularly well represented. For example, the work of scholars like Peter Hall (1993), Peter Katzenstein (1996), Ronald Inglehart (1997), Robert Putnam (1994) and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (1995) has improved our understandings of European polities, societies and economies. Yet despite a recent rise in interest, ideational and cultural explanations still meet with skepticism in many quarters of the discipline. Some scholars doubt whether non-material factors like ideas or culture have independent causal effects, and others, who accept that such factors might matter, despair of devising viable ways of analyzing their impact on political life.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Security, Democratization, Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Nationalism, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, France, and Latin America

1358. Negotiating Economic Transitions in Liberizing Polities

Author:: Frances Hagopian
Publication Date:: 05-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: How do governments struggling to consolidate new democracies enact effective stabilization and adjustment policies, reform the public sector, and deregulate markets? And what has been the impact of economic liberalization on political institutions and systems of political representation? Treating economic and political transitions as mutually interdependent, this paper couples these questions to suggest a reformulation of the conventional wisdom about how economic liberalization proceeds and how political interests are determined. It challenges the assumption that neoliberal reform is most readily achieved in liberalizing polities when visionary political leaders surrounded by coherent economic teams with comprehensive programs in place act with a wide margin of autonomy from society. It also questions the contention that structures of political representation are the outgrowth of either economic organization or the product of state engineering. The paper makes two arguments. Its central argument is that economic reform is accomplished most readily when government reformers, acting through available clientelistic, corporatist, and party-based networks of mediation, negotiate the compliance of public and private sector representatives of social actors for the introduction of market-oriented reforms. They trade public resources or legislation favoring the representational status of political or social actors in the present for the agreement of those actors to accept diminished state resources for their organizations or constituents in the future. The use of specific networks of negotiation, moreover, influences the design of liberalization policies and helps to account for national differences in the pace and sequence of economic reform measures. The paper's second argument is that those systems of political representation that are strengthened as a result of the temporary advantages that accrue to them during the process of state retreat will endure even when they are incompatible with economic liberalism. This is so because the politicians and group leaders who manage these networks have the opportunity to design institutions that will allow them to accommodate themselves and adapt their power bases to economies in which the market plays a larger role.
Topic:: Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, Central America, and North America

1359. Democratization, health care reform, and ngo—government collaboration: catalyst or constraint?

Author:: Alberto Cardelle
Publication Date:: 07-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The increasingly diminished role of the state in Latin America has been accompanied by decentralization of health care delivery and an enhanced role of the private sector in delivery of services. Simultaneously, in the process of regional democratization, the number of organized civil society groups, NGOs, has expanded, increasing the alliances formed between NGOs and governments in the process of state reform. This paper examines the experiences of 20 NGO-government collaborative health care reform projects undertaken in Guatemala, Chile, and Ecuador. Assessments are made as to how factors, such as civil society-state relations, democratization, state reform, and international pressure, have catalyzed or constrained policies promoting the collaborations. The projects' implementation processes are analyzed with an emphasis on determining their sustainability, and various aspects of the collaborations — for example, funding, coordinated planning, and training — are evaluated. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations for future implementation of similar projects.
Topic:: Democratization and Government
Political Geography:: Latin America

1360. Stabilization and Its Discontents: Argentina's Economic Restructuring in the 1990s

Author:: Manuel Pastor and Carol Wise
Publication Date:: 05-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: Even as multilateral officials adamantly oppose the implementation of currency boards as a way of stabilizing exchange rates and inflation in the wake of the recent Asian financial crisis, Argentina remains committed to such an arrangement. This paper explores the political and economic conditions that prompted Argentine policymakers to adopt an economic management model in 1991 that is generally considered to be less flexible than other approaches now prevailing in Latin America. Short-term outcomes as well as longer-term patterns of economic restructuring now underway in Argentina are analyzed. The authors argue that, despite considerable success on the macro-stabilization front, policymakers still have their work cut out in terms of designing a set of second-phase measures to facilitate smoother adjustment at the microeconomic level.
Topic:: Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Latin America

1361. Free Trade in the Americas: Fulfilling the Promise of Miami and Santiago

Author:: Stephen Lander and Ambler Moss
Publication Date:: 04-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was the bold centerpiece of the Summit of the Americas held in Miami in December 1994, and the FTAA recently received further impetus at the Summit of the Americas II in Santiago, Chile. This Agenda Paper, comprises two essays, one an overview of the process by Ambler Moss, “Moving Toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas,” and the other a look forward by Stephen Lande, “Launching Negotiations and Concrete Progress by the Millennium,” which assesses the progress made to date in working toward the FTAA and particularly examines the subject of “business facilitation” or measures designed to enhancethe flows of trade even as the FTAA is being negotiated.
Topic:: International Cooperation and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Latin America

1362. The Implementation of Agenda 21 in Latin America, 1992-1997

Author:: Gisela Salomón
Publication Date:: 03-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: In June 1992, 172 governments meeting at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, agreed to work together to promote sustainable development. Five years later, in 1997, environmental problems continued to deteriorate. In this article, Gisela Salomón analyzes the difficulties faced by Latin American countries in implementing Agenda 21 and points to areas where progress has been made in sustainable development. The author expresses the need for governments to strengthen their political will to implement environmental strategies and to consider not only the economic aspects of development but social and ecological as well, emphasizing the importance of conscience-building, especially through education.
Topic:: Development and Environment
Political Geography:: Latin America

1363. Cato Institute's 15th Annual Monetary Conference

Author:: Anna J. Schwartz, Stanley Fischer, Jerry L. Jordan, Leland B. Yeager, Francisco Gil-Diaz, Roberto Salinas-Leon, A. James Meigs, Lawrence Kudlow, William A. Niskanen, Michael Prowse, and Bert Ely
Publication Date:: 10-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: On Tuesday, October 15, 1997 the Cato Institute continued its 15 year tradition of exploring pressing and timely issues in international fiscal policy with its meeting Money and Capital Flows in a Global Economy. Speakers including Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan; First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Stanley Fisher; and the Bank of Mexico's Vice Governor, Francisco Gil-Díaz, convened to sort through the pressing issues relevant to global capital flows that face the world economy.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:: South America, Latin America, North America, Mexico, and Nagasaki

1364. Open Regionalism: Lessons from Latin America for East Asia

Author:: Clark Winton Reynolds
Publication Date:: 08-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The process of regional integration is part of the reshaping of the international economic order at the end of the 20th century. Much if it is impelled by raw market forces, or what one may term 'silent integration.' In this process the increasingly liberalized movement of goods and services, factors of production (capital, technology, and labor through migration and as embodied in trade in goods and services), and tastes offers new prospects and challenges. There are opportunities for major increases in income and wealth for the most intrepid, skilled, mobile, and aggressive participants in the process. There are threats of lost income, power, prestige, values, and institutions for those left behind. There is a need to go behind the impulse of market forces, taking advantage of their dynamic but finding ways to manage interdependence so as to best reconcile differences among social groups, institutions, and values to ensure that the process of liberalized exchange produces gains that are equitable, stable, and sustainable.
Topic:: Economics, International Organization, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:: Israel, East Asia, South America, and Latin America

1365. Liberals, Radicals, and Women's Citizenship in Chile, 1872-1930

Author:: Erika Maza Valenzuela
Publication Date:: 11-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This paper analyzes women's organizations in the anticlerical-and middle- to upper-class-segment of Chilean society from the late nineteenth century to 1930. It focuses on their leaders' positions regarding women's rights, especially the suffrage. The feminist organizations within the anticlerical segment developed later than the Catholic ones and they had less contact with women in the popular sectors. These organizations had varying degrees of anticlericalism. Some of their members were free thinkers, a few were Protestant, and many of them were Catholics who were critical of the clergy's influence in society and politics. This paper shows that, during the period studied here, the anticlerical leaders, both men and women, were opposed to granting women full suffrage rights. They argued that, before voting, women should be given their civil rights and access to secular education under state auspices. However, even after the Civil Code had been partially modified and the number of women with secular secondary education had become roughly equal to that of men in the mid 1920s, anticlerical leaders still only supported the vote for women in municipal elections. By enfranchising women only for local elections, anticlerical leaders-Liberals and Radicals-sought to 'educate' women politically while preventing them from tipping the balance of forces benefiting the Conservative Party in legislative and presidential elections. Catholic-Conservatives had been more inclusive of women in education, social life, and politics since the mid-nineteenth century, and for this reason they had a greater capacity to appeal for women's votes.
Topic:: Gender Issues and Government
Political Geography:: Latin America

1366. As Mexico Imploded: Action and Inaction in the United States

Author:: Sidney Weintraub
Publication Date:: 07-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: On December 20, 1994, Mexican financial and monetary authorities raised the band within which the peso was permitted to fluctuate by 15 percent. They expected a short-lived shock, some economic adjustment, and then back to business as usual with a modestly devalued peso. Mexico, after all, had a history of currency devaluations, particularly during the transitions from one administration to another. Beyond that, Mexico was not a world monetary powerhouse and what it did would not normally attract great or sustained international attention.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Latin America, and Mexico

1367. Latin America and the Second Clinton Administration

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 02-1997
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: Presidents of the United States are elected to govern the American people, not the Latin American republics. Consequently, one should be neither surprised nor particularly troubled by the fact that many of our chief executives have failed to elicit much enthusiasm south of the border. Indeed, given the genuine differences of national self-interest, we would have ample reason to worry were it otherwise. Even so, one cannot help noticing how very unpopular the first Clinton administration has been in Latin America and with what trepidation most of the republics face the prospects of a second four years.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, Economics, Trade, and Bill Clinton
Political Geography:: Latin America and United States of America

1368. Time to End the Certification Circus

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 04-1997
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: More than a decade ago, the U.S. Congress established a procedure whereby each year the president must “certify” that a given country is cooperating with us in the eradication of drug production and trafficking. Governments that lag behind, show little enthusiasm for our crusade, or are found colluding with narco-lords are subject to sanctions. Those “decertified” are denied foreign assistance, as well as U.S. votes for loans at the international financial institutions. Such countries–or, rather, our investors in their countries–also become ineligible for premiums from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Narcotics Trafficking, and Drugs
Political Geography:: Latin America and United States of America

1369. Brazil: The Twisted Path to Reform

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 05-1997
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: Although Mexico is, without doubt, the most important Latin American country for the United States, by any standard Brazil should rank close behind. It represents our second largest export market in the region and has become the second largest venue of U.S. investment there. More to the point, in many ways, Brazil is South America, in the sense that its economy is larger than that of all its neighbors combined. In many ways, it is a trendsetter for an entire continent. The success or failure of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s reform program will decisively shape the future of Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay and influence strongly developments in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Economics, Government, and Reform
Political Geography:: Brazil, Latin America, and United States of America

1370. Arms Sales: An Old Issue Revisited

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 06-1997
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: Is the United States on the verge of pushing the major Latin American countries into a new arms race? Time seems to think so, to judge by a long article in the April 14 issue. Subtitled “the inside story of how the Pentagon and big defense contractors got the President to open the way for weapons sales to Latin America,” Time claims to provide the background to the Clinton administration’s current review of arms transfer policy. In so doing, the article revives an old controversy, namely, what role the United States plays (or should play) in the acquisition (or denial) of expensive military hardware, particularly to countries that lie within its own sphere of influence and, in the opinion of arms control experts, humanitarians, and journalists, “don’t need weapons at all.”
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Arms Trade
Political Geography:: Latin America

1371. Mexico’s Midterm Elections: A Major Turning Point?

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 07-1997
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: On July 6, Mexicans will go to the polls to elect a new Chamber of Deputies, renew a quarter of the Senate, and choose governors and legislators in six states. They will also have the opportunity to elect–for the first time–the governor of Mexico City, a position that, until now, has been appointive rather than elected. These races amount to both a midterm referendum on the stewardship of President Ernesto Zedillo and a crucial test of his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Politics, Reform, Elections, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Latin America and Mexico

1372. Argentina: Another Round at the Polls

Author:: Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:: 10-1997
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:: This month President Clinton visits Argentina, a major South American country that in recent years has become one of our most valued and trusted Latin allies. His presence there will underscore the special relationship that President Carlos Sal Menem has forged with the United States, a relationship that is a mirror image of Argentina’s historic antagonism toward Washington and all its works. Clinton’s presence will also highlight Argentina’s significant victories in the economic field–in the war against inflation, in the struggle to reestablish creditworthiness, and, above all, in its efforts to attract significant new foreign investment from Western Europe, Japan, and the United States. The visit precedes by about ten days an important midterm election, which in all probability will determine the political lineup for that country’s 1999 presidential election. In this regard, the most important development has been the creation of a multiparty coalition, the Alliance, which will be running joint lists against the candidates of Menem’s own Peronist Party. If the Peronists hold their own on October 26, Menem will be tempted to make a bid for an unprecedented third term. If they are soundly defeated, the struggle for succession within Peronism will begin the morning after. But a victory for the Alliance by no means clearly points the way for the opposition, which is beset by profound divisions of its own. This vagueness makes these elections a particularly interesting lens through which to view Argentina’s continuing evolution.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Diplomacy, and Economics
Political Geography:: Argentina and Latin America

1373. Poverty in Latin America: Issues and New Responses-A Rapporteurs' Report

Author:: Gabriela Ippolito-O'Donnell and Brenda Markovitz
Publication Date:: 03-1996
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The Kellogg Institute hosted an academic workshop on “Poverty in Latin America: Issues and New Responses,” from 30 September to 1 October 1995. This was the third annual workshop in the series “Project Latin America 2000,” supported by The Coca-Cola Company. The workshop gathered scholars, policymakers, business and labor leaders, grassroots practitioners, and journalists from throughout the Americas to examine current trends in poverty, inequality, and employment emerging in the aftermath of structural adjustment, and to share policy experiences aimed at improving employment opportunities, organizational capabilities, and living conditions of the urban and rural poor. Vilmar Faria (Special Advisor to the President, Brazil) and Víctor Tokman (Assistant Director General and Regional Director for the Americas, International Labor Organization, Peru) organized these events. This report summarizes the academic workshop, including abstracts of each of the papers presented, the discussants’ remarks, the issues debated, and the organizers’ conclusions.
Topic:: Civil Society, Development, Poverty, Economic Growth, Social Justice, and Public Policy
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1374. Another Institutionalization: Latin America and Elsewhere

Author:: Guillermo O'Donnell
Publication Date:: 03-1996
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The paper expresses skepticism about concepts current in the contemporary literature on democratization, such as 'democratic consolidation' and/or the 'lack of institutionalization' from which most of the new democracies supposedly suffer. The further claim is made that these democracies-or 'polyarchies', to use the term preferred here-have, in fact, two very important institutions, elections and particularism/clientelism, which are not generally recognized as such due to the narrow way in which political scientists usually conceptualize institutions. Finally, the paper traces some correlates and elective affinities resulting from what it labels 'informal institutionalization.' The main argument is that, in order to contribute to improving the quality of many of the new polyarchies, analysts must describe their main features realistically, which requires moving well beyond merely negative characterizations limited to what these countries seem to lack in comparison with older polyarchies.
Topic:: Democratization, Governance, and Institutions
Political Geography:: Europe and Latin America

1375. Poverty and Inequality in Latin America: Some Political Reflections

Author:: Guillermo O'Donnell
Publication Date:: 07-1996
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The paper begins with a brief overview of the present social situation of Latin America, arguing that during the 1980s the widespread poverty and deep social inequality already existing in the region further increased. After this the paper reviews several strategies that could be used by would-be reformers, pointing out the potentialities but also the limitations of these strategies. Consequently the present text examines the broad contours of political coalitions that might be able to deal reasonably effectively with poverty and inequality. The paper concludes by arguing that the only possible foundation for these strategies and coalitions is a morally and democratically inspired view of the respect due to the dignity of every human being. The likelihood of such an emergence is not assessed.
Topic:: Democratization, Politics, Poverty, and Inequality
Political Geography:: South America and Latin America

1376. The Journey to Democracy: 1986-1996

Author:: Robert A. Pastor
Publication Date:: 01-1996
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: In my travels throughout Latin America, I have always found the region's leaders eager to converse with American statesmen, but with few exceptions, they mostly had to content themselves with speaking to specialists like me. The kind of transnational dialogue that would permit hemispheric relations to rise to a higher level just did not exist. When President Carter asked if I would direct a new program at The Carter Center, my thoughts turned to the question of whether I could help form a group of senior statesmen from thoughts the hemisphere, who not only could consult with each other, but also work together to advance the ideals of human rights, democracy, social justice, and equitable development that lie at the core of the inter-American promise.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: United States, South America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean

1377. Defiant Again: Indigenous Poeples and Latin American Security

Author:: Donna Lee Van Cott
Publication Date:: 10-1996
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: The cycle of Indian rebellion and government repression that characterized the first centuries of contact between European and Amerindian peoples cannot yet be consigned to the history books. The eruption of an armed movement in southern Mexico, comprised primarily of destitute Maya Indians, as well as smaller demonstrations of resistance in Brazil, Ecuador, and elsewhere speaks eloquently to this fact. While the majority of conflicts between the estimated 40 million indigenous peoples in Latin America and the societies in which they live are now played out in the political arena, security issues continue to generate violent interethnic conflict. Since the Conquest, the interests of indigenous communities usually have conflicted with national governments' security policies. These include a dimension explicitly intended to control the autonomous tendencies of indigenous communities, suppress Indian political organizing, and erase the independent identity of Indian nations.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and International Law
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, Latin America, and Central America

1378. Report on a Property Issues Conference

Author:: Jimmy Carter, Jennifer McCoy, George Price, and Robert Pastor
Publication Date:: 07-1995
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: The Carter Center and UNDP co-sponsored a Conference in Nicaragua on July 4-5, 1995 to accelerate resolution of the property problem that has entangled the country's politics and impeded its economic development and democratic consolidation. The culmination of more than one year of intensive analysis and numerous expert missions to Nicaragua by the Carter Center, in collaboration with the UNDP Property Project, the Conference brought together for the first time a group of Nicaraguan leaders representing the entire spectrum of affected interests. With Sandinista leaders sitting next to persons whose property was confiscated in the revolution, the meeting was a visible reminder of the remarkable transformation of Nicaragua from a society torn by war in the 1980s to one committed to the search for solutions to national problems through peaceful, legal means. Hosted by the UNDP and chaired by Jimmy Carter and George Price, the meeting provided an important boost to the Nicaraguan leaders to formulate a definitive solution to the property issue. The conference identified the elements of a package solution and the next steps needed to resolve the complex property problem. During the course of the day and a half meeting, significant consensus emerged on a number of general principles: including that small beneficiaries of urban and agrarian reforms should be protected, that former owners should be compensated with improved bonds, and that recipients of larger properties should either pay for or return those properties (see Appendices 1 and 2). In conversations on the issue of U.S. property claims, Nicaraguan officials explained the progress that has been made on resolving the claims of U.S. citizens, of which one-third to one-half were Nicaraguans who were alleged to have been associates of the former Somoza government and are now U.S. citizens. Former president Carter proposed a Follow-up Commission of representatives of the groups at the Conference to meet immediately to translate the consensus and the general proposals into specific decisions and laws. The 18-person Commission was selected and met on July 14 under the auspices of the UNDP. All parties attended, and the Commission moved expeditiously to develop concrete proposals in two subcommittees: (a) to provide security for small property holders and (b) to increase the value of the bonds. The entire group also discussed large property issues, expanding the privatization program, and ways to address abuses. The Commission set a deadline to complete all their work in three months.
Topic:: International Cooperation and United Nations
Political Geography:: United States, Latin America, Central America, North America, and Nagasaki

1379. Mission to Haiti #3

Author:: Robert A. Pastor
Publication Date:: 03-1995
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: Independent candidates and representatives from 27 political parties contested more than 2,000 municipal and Parliamentary postions in elections in Haiti on June 25, 1995. In the pre-election period, the Provisional Election Council (CEP) judged the qualifications of nearly 12,000 candidates, and disqualified about one thousand without explanations. The process was so prolonged and contentious that the ballots had to be changed up to the last days, and there were numerous mistakes. The CEP's erratic performance led three parties to boycott the election, and virtually all to question the CEP's judgment and independence. The unresponsiveness of the CEP to legitimate complaints raised by the political parties sowed seeds of distrust in the electoral process.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: United Nations, Latin America, and Caribbean

1380. Nicaraguan Property Disputes

Publication Date:: 04-1995
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: With the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in Nicaraguan history in 1990, Nicaraguans ended a decade-long civil war and began a process of reconciliation. Within the space of a year, the army was shrunk from 96,000 to less than 15,000 troops, the Nicaraguan Resistance was demobilized, and new forms of dialogue between previously hostile groups emerged. Nevertheless, economic recovery remained elusive in the face of hyperinflation, high expectations and competing demands among organized groups, and a lack of confidence among investors and producers. Disputes over property have played a significant role in Nicaragua's recent political and economic experience, and are a fundamental factor in its future economic recovery and political reconciliation.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Economics, International Law, and Politics
Political Geography:: Latin America and Central America

1381. Mexico: The Artist Is A Woman

Author:: Lucreita Giese, Carmen Boullosa, Marjorie Agosín, Sandra Berler, Elena Gascón-Vera, Laura Riesco, and Margo Glantz
Publication Date:: 01-1995
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:: The present volume includes essays presented March 4, 1994 at the symposium “Mexico: The Artist Is a Woman” at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The event commemorated the work of Latin American women in film, photography, and literature. The contributions of these artists in their respective fields reveal the originality and diversity of contemporary Mexican art. Each of the participants has an outstanding artistic career.
Political Geography:: Latin America and Mexico

1382. Asian Economic Success and Latin American Failure in the 1980s: New Analyses and Future Policy Implications

Author:: Ajit Singh
Publication Date:: 03-1994
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: A striking feature of the world economy during the last decade has been the collapse of economic growth in Latin America whilst industrialization and development have proceeded apace in the Asian countries. This paper first assesses alternative explanations of the Asian economic success and the Latin American failure during the 1980s. Secondly, it examines the related question of the long-term development strategies followed by the outstandingly successful East Asian economies. The paper arrives at rather different analyses and policy conclusions on these issues from those of the international financial institutions and the mainstream economists.
Topic:: Economic Growth, Economic Development, and Financial Institutions
Political Geography:: Asia and Latin America

1383. Religious Change and Women's Status in Latin America: A Comparison of Catholic Base Communities and Pentecostal Churches

Author:: Carol Ann Drogus
Publication Date:: 03-1994
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The last 20 years have seen the emergence in Latin America of two religious trends that challenge the traditional Catholic culture. These are the Catholic comunidades eclesiales de base (base communities or CEBs) and Protestant pentecostal religious groups. The author examines the ways in which women's experiences in CEBs and pentecostal groups may change their gender attitudes and roles and describes the new forms of symbolic and participatory opportunities for women within each group. Do women respond to these opportunities by demanding greater access to traditionally male roles in the religious and public spheres? On the other hand, do women tend to gain greater stature and authority in their more traditional roles within the family as a result of their participation in religious groups? The author finds that while both CEB and pentecostal women reconceptualize gender roles, the two religious settings produce different outcomes. Due to the heterogeneity of available sources and methods, the analysis offers necessarily tentative conclusions. It does yield interesting and suggestive contrasts between the two religious groups, however, which can inform both theory and future empirical research.
Topic:: Religion, Women, Catholic Church, Society, and Gender
Political Geography:: Latin America

1384. The Politics of Economic Liberalization: Argentina and Brazil in Comparative Perspective

Author:: Robert A. Packenham
Publication Date:: 04-1994
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The recent trends toward economic liberalization in Latin America provide an unusual opportunity to analyze a number of important questions in the political economy of development and underdevelopment. Why has virtually every Latin American country suddenly reversed the direction of the economic policies that had been in place for a full half-century or more? Why is the pace of such change rapid in some countries and slow in others? What are the already discernible and likely future consequences of such changes for development? What are their implications for theories of development and underdevelopment? What conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools are available and fruitful for analyzing these topics? This paper examines these questions with particular reference to the difference in the pace of change toward economic liberalization between Argentina under Menem and Brazil under Collor.
Topic:: Development, Economics, Political Economy, Economic Growth, and Liberalization
Political Geography:: Brazil, Argentina, and Latin America

1385. Elections in Mexico: Third Report

Publication Date:: 08-1994
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: The national elections on August 21, 1994 will be an important milestone in Mexico's political opening. During the last four years, the Mexican Congress approved a number of important reforms to the electoral process. Yet the Mexican population remains highly skeptical about the integrity of the elections. Opinion polls show that nearly one-half of respondents expect fraud, and more than one half expect post-electoral violence.
Topic:: Democratization and Government
Political Geography:: Latin America, North America, and Mexico

1386. On the State, Democratization, and Some Conceptual Problems (A Latin American View with Glances at Some Post-Communist Countries)

Author:: Guillermo O'Donnell
Publication Date:: 04-1993
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The article argues that for proper understanding of many processes of democratization, current conceptions of the state must be revised, especially with reference to its legal dimension. On this basis several contrasts are drawn between representative, consolidated democracies and the democratic (i.e., polyarchical) forms that are emerging in most newly democratized countries, East and South. From this perspective, various phenomena not presently theorized (except as deviations from a presumed modal pattern of democratization) are discussed. Concepts such as delegative democracy, low intensity citizenship, and a state that combines strong democratic and authoritarian features are introduced for the purpose of that discussion.
Topic:: Democratization, Authoritarianism, State, and Post-Communism
Political Geography:: Latin America

1387. Contesting Authenticity: Battles over the Representation of History in Morelos, Mexico

Author:: JoAnn Martin
Publication Date:: 06-1993
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: The Mexican state's use of revolutionary history to invoke nationalistic sentiments nurtures a lively tradition of storytelling. Ironically, Buena Vista's storytellers criticize the inauthenticity of official representations of the past even as they draw on the images and ideals of 'official' history to weave their own tales. This paper explores the power of storytelling to create an aura of authenticity in a setting where the boundary between true and false, pure and impure, is contested.
Topic:: Development, History, Representation, and Storytelling
Political Geography:: Latin America, North America, and Mexico

1388. The International Observation of the U.S. Elections

Publication Date:: 11-1992
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: Robert Pastor, Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Program at The Carter Center and Executive Secretary of the Council, opened the conference with a reference to Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz who once said, "A nation without free elections is a nation without a voice, without eyes, and without ears." Pastor noted that the right to free and fair elections is a universal right enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Charter of the Organization of American States. In the spirit of honoring that right, the Council was formed in 1986 to lend support and assistance to the democratization movement in the Americas.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, United Nations, and Latin America

1389. The Carter Administration and Latin America: A Test of Principle

Author:: Robert Pastor
Publication Date:: 07-1992
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: Within a single year, two events unprecedented in the history of the United States shook the nation's confidence in itself as the moral leader of the Free World. In August 1974, the president resigned under a pall of scandal, and eight months later, the United States suffered the humiliation of military defeat as it watched the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam fold the American flag under his arm and flee his post by helicopter.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: United States, Vietnam, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

1390. Observing Nicaragua's Elections, 1989-1990

Publication Date:: 05-1990
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Carter Center
Abstract:: During the entire electoral process, the political system in Nicaragua gradually opened so that by election day, the major political parties acknowledged that they had an adequate opportunity to explain their positions to the Nicaraguan people. The Council of Freely-Elected Heads of Government shared the conclusion of the parties: the Nicaraguan people were free to vote their preferences in a fair election, and the official results reflected the collective will of the nation.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, Government, Peace Studies, and Politics
Political Geography:: Latin America and Central America

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS