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The special issue attempts to contribute to the current discussions on the configuration of the political in Latin America. From the social sciences, we seek to discuss those “enigmas” related to the cultural, social, communicational, and technological logics of political events, as well as to the systems of knowledge rooted in those actors that participate in contemporary political processes. Drawing inspiration from Bolivian philosopher Luis Tapia’s (2008) notion political subsoil, and making a slight variation of it, the special issue develops the category the subsoil of the political. We use the subsoil of the political as a category of analysis, and not as an object of study. As a category of historical, social and political analysis, the subsoil of the political serves to understand, from a transdisciplinary and multidimensional perspective, the various forms of interaction through which the boundaries between the social and the political are (de)constructed. From the subsoil of the political, we seek to understand how cultural, communicational, spatial and technological elements flow, articulate (under different forms and scales) and acquire meaning, and integrate a substrate never fixed. From this substrate, groups, movements and actors sometimes represented as marginal or minority, but politically meaningful during the last two decades in the Latin American region, trigger processes and dynamics of social and societal mobilization, which are the focus of this dossier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to articles published within the issue on the theme of political, social, cultural, communicational and technological aspects of collective action in Latin America in the 21st century.

Primary elections are increasingly popular around the world, but historically political parties have typically chosen their candidate selection mechanisms in a decentralized manner. We develop a theory that accounts for variation in the use of primary elections in these settings. In our model, two parties choose candidates for general elections over an infinite horizon. Each party has an elite and a nonelite faction, where the elite faction can choose whether to hold primaries or nominate itself. Primaries produce more electable candidates, but losing a primary also deprives elites of private goods and future elite status. The model predicts that parties adopt primaries under high ideological polarization or when they are electorally disadvantaged. Additionally, we show how rigidities in the ability of winners to change candidate selection mechanisms can increase the universal adoption of primaries in electorally volatile environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a Polanyian framework to the rise of populism in the countries of the North Atlantic and the fall of the Pink Tide governments in Latin America. By taking a global vantage point from the perspective of Latin America, we argue that haute finance has served as the fulcrum of a single political movement that has washed out governments serving the general will in the South, and washed in governments that do not in the North. As we argue, a Polanyian framework offers clarity in the muddled understanding of populism, and the recent experiences of Latin America offer greater insight into the second global neoliberal wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

benefit. It argues that, by developing skills, citizens can significantly contribute to altering the course of history in our global economy, especially in Latin America and Venezuela. It introduces and familiarizes citizens with the knowledge developed in the dispute resolution field for the past fifty years. As a new field, dispute resolution is rapidly growing and evolving. Even though the knowledge produced is vital to help us interact more effectively, the materials are complex, dispersed, and, in some cases, expensive to acquire. To this end, this Article introduces some of the key concepts and analytical frameworks developed in the field, which take culture into account to more effectively address conflict and engage our differences. The dispute resolution field, when used in the context of access to justice, is reduced to addressing a single dispute outside courts. However, the dispute resolution field has more potential. It can help all of us by providing analytical frameworks so that we can process our present and future experiences addressing conflict. Without these analytical frameworks, we cannot process our experiences and generate the necessary knowledge to enhance our interactions. The goals are to develop citizens' skills, help them gain awareness of the interdependent nature of our relationships, and equip them with the tools to better engage with conflict, thus maximizing their ongoing synergies. Citizens must develop these skills on a daily basis at home and at work to more effectively face the complexities and challenges of interactions in the public square. Although these skills can be helpful for all, they are particularly relevant in countries and regions of the world where social conflict has reached unprecedented levels of volatility, such as Latin America and, more concretely, Venezuela. Governments alone cannot bring about stability to the sociopolitical arena. Only an organized civic society, equipped with conflict resolution and participatory capacity, can better stabilize and unlock the power of the whole. Besides developing citizens' capacities in the Latin American context, representative democracies need to be supplemented with "collaborative governance," which assists the process of building the channels for citizen participation in the public square. The region can no longer wait--oscillating between revolutions and caudillos (strongmen) has proven to be futile. The time has come for all citizens to participate and move from "I have a dream" to "We have a dream." Only then will the world see what Latin America can achieve when it moves from the noise produced by all the instruments playing at the same time--or the limited power of a single instrument playing a solo--to the music created when all instruments play together, realizing the power of the orchestra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses whether the concepts of Antonio Gramsci still "travel" to Latin America. During the 20th century, Gramsci was one of the most important social theorists invoked to understand forms of social order in Latin America, as well as providing resources to reflect upon subaltern culture, resistance and the construction of alternatives. However, over the past two decades there have been several theoretical and practical challenges to the hegemony of Gramsci. These challenges are multifarious, but can be reduced to several important contentions that are explored in this article. These include the enduring role of violence, the alleged decline of ideology and finally the challenge of state‐centrism in the face of geographical difference. In the current regional conjuncture, marked by the return to power of right‐wing social forces, I therefore examine whether Gramscian concepts are still apposite for understanding the political economy of Latin America in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the role of individual redistributive preferences on protest participation. The article focuses on Latin America, a region that has experienced substantial protests and demonstrations in the last decade, making use of individual-level data on redistributive preferences and protest participation collected across eighteen countries in 2010, 2012, and 2014. The results show evidence for an association between strong individual preferences for redistribution and participation in protests motivated by the low quality of services and institutions, failures to reduce corruption, and perceived lower standards of living. The results are robust to alternative estimators, samples, and model specifications and not affected by endogeneity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the state and emerging research on criminal politics through a study of criminal protection rackets by developing a political economy framework to explain variation in forms of resistance to rackets in Latin America.

The article argues that female presidents are more likely than their male counterparts to mobilize pro-women reforms on the basis of gender identity and network with elite feminists.

This article assesses the claim that sanctuary cities—defined as cities that expressly forbid city officials or police departments from inquiring into an individual's immigration status—are associated with post hoc increases in crime. We employ a causal inference matching strategy to compare similarly situated cities where key variables are the same across the cities except the sanctuary status of the city. We find no statistically discernible difference in violent crime, rape, or property crime rates across the cities. Our findings provide evidence that sanctuary policies have no effect on crime rates, despite narratives to the contrary. The potential benefits of sanctuary cities, such as better incorporation of the undocumented community and cooperation with police, thus have little cost for the cities in question in terms of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the present paper, a short analysis of the geopolitical system of the modern world is described with the example of such countries of Latin America as Uruguay and Argentina. The author gives several, the most significant events in the history of these countries, which had a significant effect on their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Munck (2018) provides us with a thoughtful reflection on the lessons that can be drawn for the Left from a review of recent Latin American experiences and debates. I am in total agreement with his central point regarding the critical importance of these experiences and debates for augmenting the global Left by the provision of theoretical and political tools that can be used for the Left to come to terms with the forces at work in the current phase of world capitalist development - and in moving forward. On the other hand, I disagree with the way that he conceptualizes the challenge that recent developments in Latin America presents the Left. This is a reply to: Munck, R. 2018. “Rethinking the Left: a View from Latin America.” Global Discourse. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2018.1461438. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The images of revolution in Latin America have long been part of the metropolitan left imagination. Yet there is not much input from the complex and grounded Latin American debates rethinking the left into the global discourse. I will develop an argument/analysis addressing that gap in three phases. First in Theory I will seek to place the Latin American debates from a postcolonial perspective focusing on the reception of key debates in the global North. I then move on to the ‘left decade’ itself in Practice laying out some of the basic parameters, its complexity and contradictions. Post 2000, Latin America became a laboratory of left experimentalism that deserves closer attention. Finally, in Futures I cast a cold eye on alternative scenarios for the left with a view to going beyond the simplifications current in Northern left coverage. Any global rethinking on ‘augmenting the left’ would benefit from the various views from (not just on) Latin America. There is much to learn from debates which might help rethink a left strategy that is fit for purpose in the 21st century, learning from the mistakes of the past and from the now seemingly ebbing left decade or ‘pink tide’ in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a unified theory of presidential instability to explain why presidents are removed from office through military coups or through legal procedures. While some causal factors motivate opponents to overthrow the president irrespective of the specific mechanism employed, other factors expand the relative capabilities of groups inclined to pursue military or civilian action. The first group of variables, including economic recession, protests, and radicalization, explains why presidents fall. The second set of variables, including regional diffusion, partisan support for the executive, and normative support for democracy, explains how they are ousted. We test this theory using discrete-time event history models with sample selection on a novel database for 19 Latin American countries between 1945 and 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Revista de Sociologia e Política is the property of Revista de Sociologia e Politica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the current political configuration in Latin America, as well as the social transformations that occurred in the region as of April 2017. It cites the need to recognize the important role to be played by institutions, specifically the constitutional framework, in the challenges faced by the region in the future. It also explores a crisis of representation and legitimacy.

Elections in competitive authoritarian regimes have become a major focus of comparative research. However, existing research mostly focuses on large-N comparative studies with older cases and data. Therefore, the conclusions of these studies typically only have a fairly limited explanatory potential. A number of authors thus suggest turning our attention to studies with small and middle-N, which-thanks to closer interaction with data-can help improve the explanatory ability. The aim of this study is to react to this situation and offer an explanation of the varying degree of electoral competitiveness in competitive authoritarianism in Latin America. For that purpose, this study compares 41 cases of elections that were carried out between 1990 and 2014, using regression analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This study uses the data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) project and tries to either provide more accurate conclusions than some of the previous researches or to disprove these conclusions altogether. The results highlight the importance of economic growth, concurrent elections, opposition party ban, cohesion of the opposition and media censorship. These findings are in discrepancy with previous research which rather put structural factors in the back seat and considered actor's behaviour to be the key factors. What is even more interesting, though, is the fact that the two most influential structural explanations usually mentioned with respect to competitive authoritarianism, i.e. natural resources rent and economic statism, are proved as rather irrelevant in Latin America's context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Paraguayan activist and economist Gustavo Codas is presented. According to Codas, the return of the Right does not mean the end of a progressive cycle. He argues that the Left profoundly changed the political playing field in Latin America. He also talks about the issue of the integration of Latin America and the role of the U.S. in the crisis of the region's progressive cycle.

The article presents the highlights of a roundtable of Latin American scholars hosted by the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) in 2016. The scholars talked about the ousters of Presidents Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil through the impeachment process. They discussed the use of the parliamentary coup as a technique to stop the region's consolidation of social and economic rights.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies (Routledge) is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 1990s saw a shift to the left in Latin American politics. However, there no studies comprehensively analyze political ideology and its determinants in Latin America during and after this period. Using survey data from 1996-2010, this paper makes two contributions. First, it finds that political ideology is determined by subjective perceptions on the state of the economy and society. Second, it finds that the probability of being more leftist has not significantly increased. Two theories that argue that political outcomes do not necessarily reflect the political ideology of the median voter are reviewed to explain the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses trends in Latin American politics and presidential leadership adapted from the organization the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) report "The United States & Latin America: Opportunities for Hemispheric Integration Based on Economic Growth and Political Reform" by Mel Martinez and Dan Mahaffee. It examines trade, investment, and economic growth in the Western Hemisphere, presidential leadership in Latin America, and U.S. relations with Latin America.

Since the early days of the self-help construction school that gave a definite switch to the urban housing debate in Latin America, the urban development discourse has shown some marked variations. Major multilateral agencies – especially the World Bank, UNCHS (UN-Habitat) and UNDP – played a key role in the evolution of this discourse. These institutions have also dominated the normative agendas that have brought about some definite shifts in urban policies and planning practices. Allowing for the differences between these international agencies' discourses, consensus was reached on the desired enabling roles of national and local governments. This article systematizes the switches in paradigms, central concepts, and planning approaches as witnessed by experience in the cities of Latin America over the past four decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to introduce this special issue of Contexto Internacional, we first seek to provide a panoramic understanding of the Latin American political landscape. Next, we consider the new (and not so new) development strategies adopted by Latin American states, and their implications for foreign policy and international relations. Following this, we offer a brief review of the literature on Latin American foreign policy analysis and some of the theoretical and methodological challenges facing the study of Latin American international relations, thus providing a context for a deeper understanding of the contributions to this special issue. Put differently, our objective is to provide readers with a general idea of the reasons why foreign policy has met, should have met, or has been expected to meet social demands in contemporary Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a series of news briefs related to events in Latin America in 2016. The Centro Internacional de Estudios Superiores de Comunicación para América Latina (CIESPAL) will have an homage to author Umberto Eco in March. A series of virtual education courses will be offered by CIESPAL in April. A debate on the current political situation in Latin America will take place in April.

Copyright of Revista de Antropología Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Politics in Latin America is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Andrés Bello, caraqueño and Chilean, is one of the protagonists in the history of Chile. Among his contributions, being the inspiration of the Constitution of 1833, the main author of the Civil Code and the author of Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los Americanos stands out. His history, although past, is extraordinarily contemporary. Bello's erudition, humanist vision, legislative work, and, ultimately, love for the South American world, are a contrast to the current situation and sectarianism in many regions of Latin America today. Therefore, Bello can be considered a contemporary of ours, a teacher and at the same time a fellow traveler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economics, politics, and education are closely interwoven elements in any country, and Latin America is no different. Like many areas, Latin America has suffered since the economic crisis of 2008, yet external factors are all impacting the area. What at first may appear to be diverse elements such as eco-tourism, a new canal, legal changes in England, cheaper Internet costs, and the dropping of travel restrictions all will play key roles in the development of Latin American countries. This article will present economic snapshots of developments across Latin America and show how they are impacting the nature of K-12, college, and corporate environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identity, the name of a subcontinent and the search for an own rationality, are points the author of the article takes up again as substantial for the criticism of Latin American philosophy. He reviews them in a critical way and finds that from a one historical, one political and one economic perspective the three substantial can be approached and validated from other philosophical considerations which do not favor the genealogical method with which the categories had been treated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines contemporary Political Psychology in Latin America, by means of a bibliometric approach, for the period 2000-2010. Results show a steady growth of the field in the region (especially in Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil). These countries coincide with the place to which the most productive institutions belong. In turn, the most productive authors of the period are Argentine. The most productive journals concentrate in Spain and Brazil. Finally, a tendency towards individual work, with low levels of collaboration among researchers, is observed. Based on these results, we analyze the current place that Political Psychology has as disciplinary field in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance and the transformations involved in the conception of the public from an institutional perspective are addressed in this article. With this aim, an approach to the concept of governance from various authors is realized, arguing its distinguishing features with respect to the traditional public management in the modern state. Likewise, an analysis of the main arguments of the institutional perspective, with respect to changes in the public and political arena that the raises the governance approach is proposed, to conclude with some reflections, in general, about the governmental process in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the political phenomena of "Populism" highlighting its development in Venezuela and the U.S. Populism involves an appeal to people and corresponds to a politician, regime or a movement. Historical instances include "Narodnichestvo" in Russia and the US People's Party. Other topics discussed include Latin American populism, Tea Party in the U.S. and views of Argentine political theorist Ernesto Laclau. McCarthyism propagated by American senator Joseph McCarthy is discussed.

The article discusses populism in the context of Latin America in relation to conceptual and normative issues. Concepts and theories on social sciences from the perspective of non-Western world have been presented. Challenges of maintaining a relationship between populism and democracy in Latin America have been discussed. Latin American stereotypes, populist leaders such as Juan Domingo Perón from Argentina and opinion of political theorist Margaret Canovan have been stated.

The article discusses the persistence of imperialisms in Latin America in the beginning of the 21st Century. Topics include the critique offered by two Franco-Belgian bandes dessinée, "Les Brigades du temps" and "Helldorado" on the violence and cruelty of the 16th century, Iberian conquest of the Americas, the inevitability and necessity of this historical process, and the inequities outline and revealed by both works.

The article discusses how the relaxation of the term limits of presidents affect the political structure of countries in Latin America. Topics covered include the effect of constitutional design on power separation and the brief history of reelection bans in the region in the 19th century. Also mentioned is the implications of stricter term limits for the opposition groups.

The article presents an annual review of national affairs in Latin America covering the period from July 2013 to June 2014. Topics discussed include Latin America's transition to democracy, the re-election of Michelle Bachelet as the president of Chile in December 2013, and other drivers of strategic change in Latin America.