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- Malaki, Akhil
(author)
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Development Patterns in teh Commonwealth Caribbean: Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago
- 1996
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The process of national development is dynamic and multifaceted; an interrelationship between political sociology and the economy. The purpose of this study is to provide an explanation to the present day economic and social crises in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago which is located in 'dependent capitalist development'. It explores whether the dynamics of the crises is internal or external. In providing an explanation the study merely recasts Cardoso and Faletto's approach emphasizing the historical-structural transformations that have given rise to conflicts, social movements and political processes. Of critical importance has been the 'internalization of external interests'. The conclusion drawn is that the dynamics of the phenomenon of dependent capitalist development is both internatl and external. The study also shows that the crises are not just economic but more so social and cultural where internalization has occurred. The mechanism that brings about a delicate balance between centripetal and centrifugal forces withing this kind of a development is clientelism while the sources of this patronage system are, to a large extent, externally located. The interaction of all these factors has constantly resisted attempts at structural transformation. Instead, they have only served to perpetuate dependent capitalist development in Jamaica and Trindiad & Tobago.
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- Lalander, Rickard O., 1964-
(author)
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Suicide of the Elephants? : Venezuelan Decentralization between Partyarchy and Chavismo
- 2004
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- On the 3rd of December 1989, Venezuelans went to the polls for the first time to directly elect their local and regional political leaders. A process of government decentralization was initiated with direct elections of municipal mayors and regional state governors. Since 1958, the political system had been dominated by two political parties, the social democratic AD (Acción Democrática) and Christian democratic COPEI, both strongly centralized parties. The system of strongly dominant political parties is often referred to as partyarchy, with penetration of organized social and political activities. Notwithstanding, the AD-COPEI partyarchy experienced a relatively rapid process of undermining from 1989, losing control over important mayordomes, governorships and municipal councils. This book deals with the transformations of the Venezuelan political party system in the context of the decentralization process. During the principal study period (1989-2004), non-traditional political parties like the socialist MAS (Movimiento Al Socialismo) and Causa R (Causa Radical) have emerged, and triumphed in the elections of mayors and governors, thus threatening the previous almost hegemonic position of AD and COPEI. The municipal, regional and national elections of 1998 and 2000 changed the political panorama even more. Several entirely new political parties have emerged. The MVR (Movimiento V República) party of current President Hugo Chávez presents the most dramatic and rapid rise in this context. But similarly, other parties associated with decentralization have achieved increased political influence. Theoretically, a combination of actors’ rational choice, and, more process-structural approaches, particularly the use of the framework of political opportunity structures, helps to theoretically understand the political transformations related to decentralization and its implications for the party system. The study demonstrates that the party system and political decentralization are intimately connected and dependent of each other. This study describes and analyzes the “encounter” between the Venezuelan party system and the decentralization reform.
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- Lembke, Magnus, 1964-
(author)
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In the Lands of Oligarchs : Ethno-Politics and the Struggle for Social Justice in the Indigenous-Peasant Movements of Guatemala and Ecuador
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The study explores how struggles for social justice by Guatemalan and Ecuadorian indigenous peasant movements are affected by ethno-politics (the strategic political use of ethnicity), by using a comparative historical approach incorporating structural change and strategic agency. The analysis revolves around the partly enduring, partly changing oligarchic structures. The choice of the countries rests primarily upon the composition of their respective oligarchic classes. In Guatemala, the despotic agrarian oligarchs have dominated for much of the past century; whereas in Ecuador, the oligarchy was divided into an agrarian and a modernist fraction. Scholars often locate ethnic politicisation in Latin America within the context of a shift from ‘national popular’ and ‘corporatist’ political orders toward political and economic liberalisation. This shift supposedly unleashed ethnic identities which were previously subordinated by the way indigenous communities were politically incorporated. This study shows that dramatic openings for ethnic politicisation in the 1990s occurred where corporatism had been weak and oligarchic structures persisted. But the elites were unable to use ethnicity as a tool for hegemonic control. Due to the oligarchic legacy, class discourses could not be prevented from being reproduced, and ethnic ones were politicised in a way that is dysfunctional to the elites’ effort to politically disarm the rural poor. Another finding is that the persisting influence of the agrarian oligarchy made the Guatemalan movement more focused on the land struggle and more unwilling/unable to integrate into the political arena prescribed by those in control of the state. In Ecuador, the demise of the agrarian oligarchy and the rise of a strong neo-liberal fraction constituted the context within which the movement moved away from the land struggle. It accessed the ethno-political spaces more firmly but resembled the Guatemalan movement in keeping its strategy of mass mobilisation.
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- Rivarola Puntigliano, Andrés, 1969-
(author)
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Mirrors of Change : A Study of Industry Associations in Chile and Uruguay
- 2003
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Mirrors of Change is a cross-sectional study of micro and macro institutional environments that envisages to analyse shifts in the sources of institutional legitimacy since the 1960s. The main aim is to understand whether homogenising macro institutions are adopted at the micro institutional levels. In order to do this, the study examines the heterogenising elements that are specific to local environments. At the micro level, the focus is on two industry associations, namely, the Cámara de Industrias del Uruguay (CIU) and Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (SFF). At the macro level, the investigation is centred on what is termed in this study as ‘World-Culture’, composed of a group of global institutions. As the study shows, World-culture is a source of new social identities, norms, rules and values through which individuals and organisations rationally organise and pursue their interests. An important question is whether the role of the nation-state in Chile and Uruguay has changed since the 1960s. The study concludes that there is a clear shift from national to global and regional sources of legitimacy. In both cases, the intensity of interaction with macro institutions (World-culture) has been greater in the 1990s compared to the 1960s. The role of the state as prime source of institutional legitimacy at the national environmental level has decreased since global institutions through carriers like International Organisations that are beyond the reach of the state. While the homogenising exogenous institutions wielded greater influence in Chilean and Uruguayan environments, the clashes with traditional domestic institutions had a different character that stimulated new and particular forms of ‘remix’. The CIU went through a process of NGOisation, while the SFF increased its interaction with the state and the region. The two cases examined in this study show distinct responses to common problems owing to different cultural environments.
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