Timothy R. Scully – författare

Christian Democracy swept across parts of Latin America, gaining influence in Venezuela in the 1940s, Chile in the 1950s, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1960s, and Costa Rica and Mexico in the 1980s. This book offers an overview of Christian Democracy in the region— underscoring its remarkable diversity—and examines the Christian Democratic organizations of Chile and Mexico, which are still major parties today. The concluding section analyzes the demise of formerly significant Christian Democratic parties in El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela.Christian Democracy in Latin America provides the definitive stufy of the nature, rise, and decline of Christian Democracy in Latin America. The book enriches the broader theoretical literature on political parties by highlighting the distinctive strategic dilemmas parties face, and the distinctive objectives they pursue, in contexts of fragile democracy or of authoritarian regimes.

Christian Democracy swept across parts of Latin America, gaining influence in Venezuela in the 1940s, Chile in the 1950s, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1960s, and Costa Rica and Mexico in the 1980s. This book offers an overview of Christian Democracy in the region— underscoring its remarkable diversity—and examines the Christian Democratic organizations of Chile and Mexico, which are still major parties today. The concluding section analyzes the demise of formerly significant Christian Democratic parties in El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela.Christian Democracy in Latin America provides the definitive stufy of the nature, rise, and decline of Christian Democracy in Latin America. The book enriches the broader theoretical literature on political parties by highlighting the distinctive strategic dilemmas parties face, and the distinctive objectives they pursue, in contexts of fragile democracy or of authoritarian regimes.

Producing more effective governance is the greatest challenge that faces most Latin American democracies today—a challenge that involves not only strengthening democratic institutions but also increasing governmental effectiveness. Focusing on the post-1990 period, this volume addresses why some policies and some countries have been more successful than others in meeting this dual challenge.Two features of the volume stand out. First, whereas some analysts tend to generalize for Latin America as a whole, this group of authors underscores the striking differences of achievement among countries in the region and illustrates the importance of understanding these differences. The second feature is the range of expertise within the volume.In addition to the volume editors, the contributors are Alan Angell, Daniel Brinks, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, José de Gregorio, Alejandro Foxley, Evelyne Huber, José Miguel Insulza, Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Patricio Navia, Francisco Rodriguez, Mitchell Seligson, John Stephens, Jorge Vargas Cullell, and Ignacio Walker.

Producing more effective governance is the greatest challenge that faces most Latin American democracies today—a challenge that involves not only strengthening democratic institutions but also increasing governmental effectiveness. Focusing on the post-1990 period, this volume addresses why some policies and some countries have been more successful than others in meeting this dual challenge.Two features of the volume stand out. First, whereas some analysts tend to generalize for Latin America as a whole, this group of authors underscores the striking differences of achievement among countries in the region and illustrates the importance of understanding these differences. The second feature is the range of expertise within the volume.In addition to the volume editors, the contributors are Alan Angell, Daniel Brinks, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, José de Gregorio, Alejandro Foxley, Evelyne Huber, José Miguel Insulza, Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Patricio Navia, Francisco Rodriguez, Mitchell Seligson, John Stephens, Jorge Vargas Cullell, and Ignacio Walker.

From their beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century through the 1980s, political parties in Chile have displayed three discrete ideological tendencies, with two at opposite ends of the political spectrum and at least one in the center. This tripartite distribution made Chile's party system unlike any other in Latin America. How did Chile's distinctive system evolve?This book finds the answer in how three basic social cleavages – religious, urban, and rural – became polarized at three periods of "critical juncture." Clerical-anticlerical conflict gave initial definition to the party system in the period 1857-61, and continued to shape the political arena long after specific issues had receded into the background. Then, between 1920 and 1932, class conflict in the urban and mining enclave sectors forced party elites to respond to the demands of leaders of middle-sector and working groups for increased political and social power. This was the second of what the author calls Chile's "critical junctures" for party formation. The third, occurring in the period 1952-58, saw the spread of working-class politics into the countryside. Crucial here was a shift in the position of the Catholic Church on class conflict, resulting in the emergence of an important Church-inspired center party. The book compares the behavior of the political center during the three historical periods and suggests a conceptual framework for understanding different types of center parties.The author also addresses certain questions raised by the emergence and behavior of center parties: What were the implications of the presence of a center party for the patterns of party competition? Why did the center emerge and re-emerge at each critical point in the evolution of Chile's party system? Can this be understood in terms of an underlying coalitional logic, or are factors such as leadership, political choice, and historical accident more useful explanations? Consistent with this focus on the center is a new account of the key role of the Christian Democrats in the reconstitution of party competition in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The author concludes by offering some observations on the probable shape of party politics – and the role of the political center within it – in tomorrow's Chile.

Producing more effective governance is the greatest challenge that faces most Latin American democracies today—a challenge that involves not only strengthening democratic institutions but also increasing governmental effectiveness. Focusing on the post-1990 period, this volume addresses why some policies and some countries have been more successful than others in meeting this dual challenge.Two features of the volume stand out. First, whereas some analysts tend to generalize for Latin America as a whole, this group of authors underscores the striking differences of achievement among countries in the region and illustrates the importance of understanding these differences. The second feature is the range of expertise within the volume.In addition to the volume editors, the contributors are Alan Angell, Daniel Brinks, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, José de Gregorio, Alejandro Foxley, Evelyne Huber, José Miguel Insulza, Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Patricio Navia, Francisco Rodriguez, Mitchell Seligson, John Stephens, Jorge Vargas Cullell, and Ignacio Walker.