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The article focuses on the institutionalization of the female presence in the state structure. It is noted that for the advancement of the women's cause around the democratic world, the institutionalization of the female presence in the state structure matters a great deal. It is mentioned that overcoming a negative view of the state, which equated it to a quintessential patriarchal power structure is one of the key achievements of the "state feminism" phenomenon.

In this paper, I argue that social movements respond to two dimensions of political opportunity in deciding when and how to seek political influence in multilevel governance. One dimension, the degree of access or openness, is already common in the literature on transnational social movements. A second dimension of political capacity - the ability to generate authoritative outcomes - is also important, but much less studied. Both activists and scholars can assess institutions in multi-level governance for their simultaneous placement on these two dimensions. I briefly review the four resulting quadrants and the kinds of strategies social movements are likely to choose in them, discussing trade institutions that might fit in each: strong and open, strong and closed, weak and open, and weak and closed. I use this framework to argue that the Mercosur free trade area fits best in the weak and closed quadrant, and thus it is not surprising that regional social movements have directed little time to this level of governance. I also briefly review the politics of GMOs in the Mercosur region, showing that the politics of GMOs in Brazil and Argentina have surprisingly different patterns of political opportunity for their national movements that have led to very different concrete results. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the participatory effectiveness of the Brazilian landless movement. Dynamics of the impact of the social movement on public policy; Impetus for agrarian reform in the country; Background of the passage of agrarian law.

Focuses on the engagement in electoral activism by gay and lesbian liberation movements in Brazil and Mexico in 1982. Electoral reforms which were responsible for the legal registration of political parties on the left and their entry into electoral politics in Mexico; Establishment of the Rosario Ibarra Lesbian and Homosexual Support Committee; Electoral strategies that came to prevail both countries within social movement fields.

Why hasn?t abortion been liberalized in Latin America? The first part of this article analyzes the experiences of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in an attempt to answer this question, focusing on the rise of the reproductive rights movement, activism of the Vatican and anti-abortion movements, and the peculiar sociology of abortion in the region. The next part explores how differences in the position of the president on abortion and the availability of congressional allies for the reproductive rights movement affected the political climate surrounding abortion in the three countries in the 1990s and early 2000s. In Brazil, the most liberal country, a ?legal abortion? movement has emerged to encourage public health services to perform abortions on women who have been raped. In Argentina, there is almost no discussion about liberalizing abortion, but conservative attempts to ban abortion under all circumstances have failed. Chile, where abortion is illegal under all circumstances, is completely closed to discussions about liberalizing abortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the new left in Taiwan and South Korea and the renewed left in Brazil and Chile. I contend that the left can no longer best understood in terms of antiquated sociological or economic categories. The new left in East Asia and Latin America is a political project and its politics are embedded in the processes of democratic transition. My argument is simple: (i) Democratization, a variable process of change, leads to different patterns of new left organization. (ii) Meanwhile, the introduction of democracy, a form of governance with universally shared features (irrespective of how the transition to democracy took place), promotes the moderation of the new left across all four cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]