Kellogg Institute Series on Democracy and Development - Böcker

Encompassing half the continent of South America, Brazil is one of the most modern, complex, and misunderstood nations. Renowned Brazilian anthropologist Roberto DaMatta takes the misconceptions and offers a fresh, provocative interpretation of the complexity of social structure in Brazil. Using the tools of comparative social anthropology, DaMatta seeks to understand his native country by examining the values, attitudes, and systems that shape the identity of Brazil and its people. He probes the dilemma between the highly authoritarian, hierarchical aspects of Brazilian society and the concurrent desire for equality, democracy, and harmony in that same society. DaMatta leads us on a fascinating exploration into the the world of Brazilian carnivals, rogues, and heroes, and in so doing uncovers a deeper meaning of the rituals, symbols, and dramatizations unique to Brazil and its multifaceted society.

Encompassing half the continent of South America, Brazil is one of the most modern, complex, and misunderstood nations. Renowned Brazilian anthropologist Roberto DaMatta takes the misconceptions and offers a fresh, provocative interpretation of the complexity of social structure in Brazil. Using the tools of comparative social anthropology, DaMatta seeks to understand his native country by examining the values, attitudes, and systems that shape the identity of Brazil and its people. He probes the dilemma between the highly authoritarian, hierarchical aspects of Brazilian society and the concurrent desire for equality, democracy, and harmony in that same society. DaMatta leads us on a fascinating exploration into the the world of Brazilian carnivals, rogues, and heroes, and in so doing uncovers a deeper meaning of the rituals, symbols, and dramatizations unique to Brazil and its multifaceted society.

Recent changes imposed by the Vatican may redefine the Chilean and Peruvian Church's involvement in politics and social issues. Fleet and Smith argue that the Vatican has been moving to restrict the Chilean and Peruvian Church's social and political activities. Fleet and Smith have gathered documentary evidence, conducted interviews with Catholic elites, and compiled surveys of lay Catholics in the region. The result will help chart the future of the Church and Chile and Peru.

The central, driving theme of this volume is democracy, its vicissitudes and its possibilities in Latin America. Guillermo O'Donnell considers the pattern of political and social alliances that have shaped Argentina's agitated history, and focuses on the tensions and intrinsic weaknesses of bureaucratic-authoritarianism, especially in its most repressive guises, at a time when it projected itself as an enduring, efficient, and potentially legitimate form of political authority. He includes detailed empirical analysis of daily life under extremely repressive regimes and argues throughout that the struggle for democracy is the most appropriate way, both morally and strategically, to take advantage of the fissures and tensions that close examination discovers behind the bureaucratic-authoritarianism facade.Counterpoints is a successful mix of personal experience and meticulous scholarship—a trajectory of O'Donnell's work that starts with the critique of authoritarianism and ends with a close examination of presently existing democracies in Latin America. His discussion of the flaws of the new democracies originating from defective institutionalism and extreme social inequalities is especially valuable for scholars of democracy and democratization, comparative politics, and Latin American politics.

The central, driving theme of this volume is democracy, its vicissitudes and its possibilities in Latin America. Guillermo O'Donnell considers the pattern of political and social alliances that have shaped Argentina's agitated history, and focuses on the tensions and intrinsic weaknesses of bureaucratic-authoritarianism, especially in its most repressive guises, at a time when it projected itself as an enduring, efficient, and potentially legitimate form of political authority. He includes detailed empirical analysis of daily life under extremely repressive regimes and argues throughout that the struggle for democracy is the most appropriate way, both morally and strategically, to take advantage of the fissures and tensions that close examination discovers behind the bureaucratic-authoritarianism facade.Counterpoints is a successful mix of personal experience and meticulous scholarship—a trajectory of O'Donnell's work that starts with the critique of authoritarianism and ends with a close examination of presently existing democracies in Latin America. His discussion of the flaws of the new democracies originating from defective institutionalism and extreme social inequalities is especially valuable for scholars of democracy and democratization, comparative politics, and Latin American politics.

The concept of political culture is young—born from the need to explain the dramatic sociological and political changes that occurred in Europe both during and after the Second World War. The practice of examining the culture of political parties in depth through an ethnographic field study of a country's social structure is, so far, a neglected one.Larissa Adler Lomnitz and Ana Melnick rectify the lack of attention to this area with respect to Chile in Chile's Political Culture and Parties: An Anthropological Explanation. This volume examines Chile's political culture by considering its origin and the persistence of its "grammar," which the authors define as the ability of each member of society to function within social categories and rules. This "grammar," they believe, is what gives character to national culture.Lomnitz and Melnick argue that political parties in Chile are a conglomeration of horizontal networks of friends. Class is perfectly established within Chile's social tissue and is defined by a mixture of variables, including an individual's position in the economy, social network, religious beliefs, and life-style choices. The existence of social class creates subcultural layers in society, and these subcultures create a horizontally organized, class-structured, hierarchical society.In a political system such as this, characterized by its ability to contain strong political subcultures, it is crucial to guarantee the coexistence of these subcultures through the acceptance of a common legal framework or constitution. Respect for this constitution legitimizes the system and, therefore, legitimizes presidential authority. This constitutional respect is especially present in Chilean culture and is perhaps one of Chile's best-known political characteristics.From the tradition of the fronda aristocratica that determined the Chilean president, to the current coexistence of the Radical and Christian Democrat parties in Chile, this thoughtful synthesis of the elements that determine Chile's political culture is a valuable tool for all students of history, political science, and Latin America.

Originally published in Latin America where it was enthusiastically received, The Dynamics of Inflation presents the first detailed, theoretical schema for the study of accelerating inflation in chronically inflated economies with complex productive structures. Antonio Kandir demonstrates that because of adjustment, these economies tend to move toward a situation where inflation begins to acquire an endogenous acceleration component that raises serious problems for all kinds of stabilization policies.Kandir begins by establishing criteria for classifying theories of inflation and defines the theoretical perspective on which this book is based. He argues that integration between the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels is needed to understand the dynamics of prices under conditions of high instability. He develops an overall framework to study the short-run dynamics of desired markups and demonstrates that expectations about the future prices of public-fiscal goods and exchange goods assume importance in determining desired markups. Kandir concludes that these attempts at adjustment lead to pressures for changes in relative prices between sectors with different patterns of use of these goods; and that in turn leads to an accelerating inflation that is sustained for as long as the adjustment is considered complete.With the aid of sophisticated models, Kandir shows the limits and problems of the stabilization policies that have been implemented to reduce inflation or contain its acceleration when there is an endogenous component of acceleration.This book, which analyzes the nature and development of democracy in Uruguay, will appeal to a variety of scholars, especially Latin Americanists and scholars working on parties, elections, and democracy.

Internationally recognized as a leading thinker in the fields of economic development and Latin American studies, Albert O. Hirschman has, more recently, turned to the study of social science at large. His pioneering work has had reverberations in economics, political science, sociology, and other disciplines affecting specialists and nonspecialists alike. In Discovering the Possible Luca Meldolesi recounts over half a century of Hirschman's work, exploring the motivations, methodology, and unexpected developments of his research.Tracing Hirschman's intellectual journey-from his European origins and education during the tormented 1930s to his escape to the US in 1941, from his extended stays in South America to his far-reaching research interests across three continents—Meldolesi identifies recurrent themes and shows how they fit together, revealing a remarkable unity of inspiration. Focusing on Hirschman's major works, such as The Strategy of Economic Development, Journeys toward Progress, Exit, Voice and Loyalty, and The Passions and the Interests, as well as his lesser-known writings, Meldolesi suggests that the flexibility of Hirschman's methodology, together with the extraordinary range of his results, contribute to his successful endeavor to reconcile research and commitment, and to introduce readers to his dream of "a social science for our grandchildren."Published simultaneously in Italian, Spanish, and English, Discovering the Possible is the first book to probe the whole corpus of Hirschman's work and to highlight the wealth of his ideas and the sharp self-irony with which his intuitions are forged into thoughts. The book will interest students and professionals in economics, sociology, political science, and moral philosophy, as well as those who focus on the development sector of these disciplines.

The multidisciplinary essays in Democracy and Its Limits combine an appreciation of the progress made to date in Third World democratization with a sober assessment of structural and cultural factors that limit further progress toward procedural democracy in many parts of the world, such as China and much of the Middle East. The contributors to this volume assess the positive accomplishments of newly installed or restored democratic regimes, as well as the frequent failure of political democracies to achieve socioeconomic democracy. In avoiding both the euphoria of many early works on Third Wave democratization and the deep pessimism of many recent publications, this book presents a balanced perspective that is a welcome contribution to the field of comparative politics.

In Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies, political scientist Mark P. Jones addresses the conditions necessary for the survival of democratic presidential systems, arguing that the electoral laws employed by such systems are intricately and inextricably linked to the longevity of democracy.Throughout the book Jones's focus is on the most realistic and feasible mechanism for facilitating the proper functioning and survival of democratic presidential systems: electoral law reform. In order to demonstrate the importance of a strong presidential legislative contingent for the successful functioning of democratic presidential government, Jones structures his argument into two parts. He first employs a review of the relevant literature plus a multitiered set of empirical analyses of Latin American presidential systems. Maintaining that certain electoral laws are more compatible with the successful functioning of democratic presidential systems than others, Jones then offers an examination of electoral data and examples from two separate populations: sixteen Latin American presidential democracies and twenty-three Argentine provincial (gubernatorial) systems. Jones uses these data as evidence to support his argument that presidential systems that consistently fail to provide their president with adequate legislative support are inherently unstable and ineffective.Political scientists and Latin Americanists will appreciate Electoral laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies as a comprehensive examination of the impact of electoral laws on presidential systems, and as a challenge to the conventional wisdom that the presidential form of government is insuperably flawed.

Since 1974 there has been an unprecedented wave of democratization in the world. This trend has been particularly extensive in South America. But the problems confronting these new democracies are staggering, and the prospects for building consolidated democratic regimes are far from uniformly good. Focusing primarily on recent South American cases, Issues in Democratic Consolidation examines some of the difficulties of constructing consolidated democracies and provides a critical examination of the major issues involved.A prominent theme running through this collection is that the transitions from authoritative rule to civilian government may be arrested by political, economic, and social constraints. The articles contain analyses of the varied modalities and complex processes related to the transitions. The first transition begins with the initial stirrings of crisis under authoritarian rule that generate some form of political opening and greater respect for basic civil rights, and ends with the establishment of a government elected in an open, competitive contest. The volume's primary focus, however, is on the second transition, which begins with the inauguration of a democratic government and ends-if all goes well-with the establishment of a consolidated democratic regime.

Since 1974 there has been an unprecedented wave of democratization in the world. This trend has been particularly extensive in South America. But the problems confronting these new democracies are staggering, and the prospects for building consolidated democratic regimes are far from uniformly good. Focusing primarily on recent South American cases, Issues in Democratic Consolidation examines some of the difficulties of constructing consolidated democracies and provides a critical examination of the major issues involved.A prominent theme running through this collection is that the transitions from authoritative rule to civilian government may be arrested by political, economic, and social constraints. The articles contain analyses of the varied modalities and complex processes related to the transitions. The first transition begins with the initial stirrings of crisis under authoritarian rule that generate some form of political opening and greater respect for basic civil rights, and ends with the establishment of a government elected in an open, competitive contest. The volume's primary focus, however, is on the second transition, which begins with the inauguration of a democratic government and ends-if all goes well-with the establishment of a consolidated democratic regime.

Bolivia, like most developing countries around the world, strove for decades to imitate Western and particularly U.S. methods of development, importing the latest technologies, institutions, crops, and livestock. Finally, beginning in the 1970s, faced with many striking instances of failure in the application of the North American modernization paradigm, diverse sectors of Bolivian civil society turned inward to rediscover their country's own multicultural identities and agrarian wisdom as sources of strength upon which to build their own socioeconomic development. The shift spawned a proliferation of development projects grounded in a new "indigenization" or revitalization of cultural traditions.Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia is the story of Bolivian rural development and cultural change. Part I provides an overview of the history of rural development in Bolivia—the long history of anti-indigenous discrimination, the introduction of aid programs in the Western development paradigm, the rise of grassroots movements challenging this paradigm, and the array of initiatives now contributing to the revitalization of indigenous cultural resources. Part II consists of in-depth narratives of nine projects, giving an inside view of the processes that interweave cultural recuperation and developmental strategies. These stories illustrate the cultural barriers that must be overcome and the setbacks often faced by grassroots federations. The projects range from successful agro-exports such as organic chocolate and quinoa to the groundbreaking work of indigenous artists and artisans. In Part III, author Kevin Healy attempts to identify the numerous factors that helped engender successful outcomes in these projects and discusses the effects of globalization on Bolivian culture and development patterns.This inspirational story of social change led by idealism will be valuable for international policymakers, analysts, and aid officials, as well as native North and South Americans, and non-Native Americans who strongly identify with their struggles.

Brian H. Smith's book surveys recent religious and political developments in Latin American Christianity, especially in the rapidly growing Pentecostal churches and in Catholicism. He finds that despite efforts by the Vatican to make the Latin American Church less involved in politics (in the wake of liberation theology) by the papal appointment of a whole new generation of conservative bishops since 1980, Catholicism is still very much a political force throughout the region.Catholic bishops, in spite of their conservative religious ideology, have felt obligated to preach the social doctrine of the Church and have vigorously denounced new economic models for enriching a minority of the population at the cost of the majority who are poor. Bishops also have denounced corruption in governments that has grown to epidemic proportions in recent years, and have strongly opposed legislative proposals that are anti-Catholic.Regardless of these efforts by Catholic prelates to maintain government support for the Church's institutions and its traditional moral concerns in law, Protestantism - especially in Pentecostal denominations among low-income sectors - has grown at a significant rate in the past twenty years.Although traditionally reluctant to involve themselves in politics, Pentecostals in recent years have become more active either by forming new Christian parties or by joining or supporting existing political movements. Their political agenda overlaps in some areas with that of Catholics. These shared concerns could lead to a coalition between Catholic and Pentecostal leaders that could have a real impact on public policy, given that over ninety percent of the population is now affiliated with one of these two denominations.However, Pentecostal religious and political leaders are also pushing publicly for full separation of church and state (which exists now only in Cuba and Mexico) and for all religions to have equal status in law. Both these similarities and the differences in the political agenda of Catholics and Pentecostals could complicate public policy debate in the years ahead and certainly short-circuit any attempts to remove religion as a significant, and sometimes divisive, influence in politics in newly constituted liberal democracies in Latin America.

As the Church seeks to understand its life and mission in an increasingly secular context, the worldwide experiences of small Christian communities offer significant insights into the Church of the future. This book presents the findings of a theological consultation held at the University of Notre Dame in 1996 among 45 theologians, pastoral leaders and lay members of small communities from five continents. What emerges here is a careful, candid and positive view of how small communities can enrich the life of the Church by drawing together people of diverse cultures and economic situations for spiritual renewal based on a sense of mission to the poor and the excluded. The theology and lived experience presented here offer profound insights into finding and living the reality of Christ in the contemporary world.This book demonstrates how and why the formation and fervor of small Christian communities may well be the leaven for the Church of the future.

Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier are political scientists who use comparative historical research to discover and evaluate patterns and sources of political change. Their work is an overall analysis of Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico, plus case studies of four distinct pairs in that group: Chile/Brazil, Uruguay/Colombia, Argentina/Peru, and Venezuela/Mexico. In addition, the Colliers meticulously describe and discuss their methods for the study including the limitations of their approach. The authors specifically focus on why and how organized labor movements in the first half of the twentieth century were incorporated into the political process in the eight Latin American countries they study. They analyze the role played by political parties, central government control, worker mobilization, and conflict between radical vs. centrist political philosophies and activities.

In 2009, Ignacio Walker—scholar, politician, and one of Latin America's leading public intellectuals—published La Democracia en América Latina. Now available in English, with a new prologue, and significantly revised and updated for an English-speaking audience, Democracy in Latin America: Between Hope and Despair contributes to the necessary and urgent task of exploring both the possibilities and difficulties of establishing a stable democracy in Latin America.Walker argues that, throughout the past century, Latin American history has been marked by the search for responses or alternatives to the crisis of oligarchic rule and the struggle to replace the oligarchic order with a democratic one. After reviewing some of the principal theories of democracy based on an analysis of the interactions of political, economic, and social factors, Walker maintains that it is primarily the actors, institutions, and public policies—not structural determinants—that create progress or regression in Latin American democracy.

The Origins of Argentina's Revolution of the Right traces the ideological roots and political impact of Argentine right-wing nationalism as it developed in the 1930s and 1940s. In this spirited book, Alberto Spektorowski focuses on the attempt by a new brand of nonconformist intellectuals to shift the concept of Argentine nationalism from its liberal incarnation to an integralist-populist one and, simultaneously, to change Argentina's path of development from liberalism to a "third road" of economic autarky.Spektorowski maintains that the "third road" developed in 1930s Argentina through the juxtaposition of two apparently opposing types of anti-liberal ideological currents: a right-wing authoritarian current reliant upon counterrevolutionary European sources, and an anti-imperialist, populist current. He shows that both of these wings rejected liberal institutions, bourgeois society, cosmopolitanism, and old-type conservatism, and became profoundly anti-imperialist. Both defended a "pro-Axis" neutrality during World War II, and both set the ideological stage for Argentina's sociopolitical shift of the 1940s. Spektorowski concludes that both of these currents produced a single nationalist ideology that became the intellectual framework in which the "repertoire" of political values of the 1943 military regime and Peronism was subsequently elaborated.

The Origins of Argentina's Revolution of the Right traces the ideological roots and political impact of Argentine right-wing nationalism as it developed in the 1930s and 1940s. In this spirited book, Alberto Spektorowski focuses on the attempt by a new brand of nonconformist intellectuals to shift the concept of Argentine nationalism from its liberal incarnation to an integralist-populist one and, simultaneously, to change Argentina's path of development from liberalism to a "third road" of economic autarky.Spektorowski maintains that the "third road" developed in 1930s Argentina through the juxtaposition of two apparently opposing types of anti-liberal ideological currents: a right-wing authoritarian current reliant upon counterrevolutionary European sources, and an anti-imperialist, populist current. He shows that both of these wings rejected liberal institutions, bourgeois society, cosmopolitanism, and old-type conservatism, and became profoundly anti-imperialist. Both defended a "pro-Axis" neutrality during World War II, and both set the ideological stage for Argentina's sociopolitical shift of the 1940s. Spektorowski concludes that both of these currents produced a single nationalist ideology that became the intellectual framework in which the "repertoire" of political values of the 1943 military regime and Peronism was subsequently elaborated.

Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe brings together well-known comparative political scientists to define and explore the effects of authoritarian rule in post-authoritarian regimes in Southern Europe, the Southern Cone, and Brazil. Contributors to this volume use the research of historians, social psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists to formulate their conceptualizations of legacies. Their analysis is also sensitive to the experiences of those who live with the consequences of authoritarian regimes. Each chapter offers a multi-case comparison either from within Latin America or between Latin America and Southern Europe.Among the challenges for democracies in Latin America and Southern Europe are weakened political parties, politicized militaries, compromised judiciaries, corrupt police forces, and widespread citizen distrust. Utilizing a historical-sociological methodology that incorporates both the formal-legal and cultural dimensions of legacies, these essayists offer a fruitful examination of the political structures and institutions bequeathed by authoritarian regimes. They look at such core institutions as political parties, executives, legislatures, constitutions, and interest groups as well as symbolic-discursive dimensions related to individual and collective memories, citizenship, public perception, and trust. They also suggest policy directions to eradicate authoritarian legacies from democratic institutions and praxis.Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe encourages comparativists to consider more systematically the many manifestations of authoritarian legacies as challenges to democracy. This volume will appeal to all students and scholars interested in comparative politics, Latin America, Southern Europe, and democratization.

Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe brings together well-known comparative political scientists to define and explore the effects of authoritarian rule in post-authoritarian regimes in Southern Europe, the Southern Cone, and Brazil. Contributors to this volume use the research of historians, social psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists to formulate their conceptualizations of legacies. Their analysis is also sensitive to the experiences of those who live with the consequences of authoritarian regimes. Each chapter offers a multi-case comparison either from within Latin America or between Latin America and Southern Europe.Among the challenges for democracies in Latin America and Southern Europe are weakened political parties, politicized militaries, compromised judiciaries, corrupt police forces, and widespread citizen distrust. Utilizing a historical-sociological methodology that incorporates both the formal-legal and cultural dimensions of legacies, these essayists offer a fruitful examination of the political structures and institutions bequeathed by authoritarian regimes. They look at such core institutions as political parties, executives, legislatures, constitutions, and interest groups as well as symbolic-discursive dimensions related to individual and collective memories, citizenship, public perception, and trust. They also suggest policy directions to eradicate authoritarian legacies from democratic institutions and praxis.Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe encourages comparativists to consider more systematically the many manifestations of authoritarian legacies as challenges to democracy. This volume will appeal to all students and scholars interested in comparative politics, Latin America, Southern Europe, and democratization.

As new democratic regimes take root in Latin America, two of the most striking developments have been a dramatic rise in crime rates and increased perception of insecurity among its citizens. The contributors to this book offer a collective assessment of some of the causes for the alarming rise in criminal activity in the region. They also explore the institutional obstacles that states confront in the effort to curb criminality and build a fairer and more efficient criminal justice system; the connections between those obstacles and larger sociopolitical patterns; and the challenges that those patterns present for the consolidation of democracy in the region. The chapters offer both close studies of restricted regions in Latin America and broader examinations of the region as a whole. The contributors to this volume are prominent scholars and specialists on the issue of citizen security. They draw on the latest methodologies and theoretical approaches to examine the question of how crime and crime fighting impact the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law in the region. These studies represent a major first step towards evaluating broadly a relative dearth of hard data about the Latin American security situation, as well as identifying future research paths. This book will be important for scholars, policy makers, and students, especially in the fields of Latin American and comparative law, political science, sociology, and criminology.Contributors: Laurence Whitehead, Marcelo Bergman, Claudio Chaves Beato, Frederico Couto Marinho, Lucía Dammert, Mark Ungar, Hugo Frühling, Elena Azaola, Elvira María Restrepo, Luis Pásara, Ana Laura Magaloni, and John Bailey.

Why has democracy in Colombia and Venezuela evolved in very different directions? In Precarious Democracies, Ana Maria Bejarano provides a comparative historical analysis of how the democratic regimes in these two countries have diverged, following similar transitions from authoritarian rule to democracy in the late 1950s.Rather than focusing on resource-driven explanations, such as the role of oil in Venezuela and coffee in Colombia, or on short-term elite choices and calculations, Bejarano argues that democratic development in Colombia and Venezuela is best understood from a vantage point that privileges political history, especially the history of institutional evolution. The book makes the case that a comparative historical institutional framework—focused both on institutional legacies from the distant past (such as the state and political parties) and on those from more recent critical junctures (the foundational pacts)—provides the best lens to account for the divergent trajectories followed by democratic regimes in Colombia and Venezuela in the second half of the twentieth century.

Recent changes imposed by the Vatican may redefine the Chilean and Peruvian Church's involvement in politics and social issues. Fleet and Smith argue that the Vatican has been moving to restrict the Chilean and Peruvian Church's social and political activities. Fleet and Smith have gathered documentary evidence, conducted interviews with Catholic elites, and compiled surveys of lay Catholics in the region. The result will help chart the future of the Church and Chile and Peru.

Although most Latin American countries are considered middle-income nations, their child health and well-being statistics overall compare poorly with those of the United States. This volume, representing the fifth part of Project Latin America 2000 from the Helen Kellogg Institute, brings together contributors from the U.S., Latin America, and organizations such as UNICEF to consider the physical, educational, social, legal, and economic status and progress of children throughout Latin America, focusing especially on health and rights issues.In chapters concerning health, experts in biology and medicine address such topics as trends in malnutrition and undernutrition, iron deficiency, inadequate sanitation, and contaminated water. Other articles on children's rights by contributors from the social sciences and public policy consider a wide range of issues, including youth violence and homicide, child labor and education, adolescents and the penal system, and future prospects for children's rights. All of the articles contribute to a more complete understanding of the situation of children in contemporary Latin American development, creating a storehouse of information that will be useful to both scholars and policymakers.These contributors show that as long as children in Latin America remain victimized by poverty, malnutrition, injustice, and violations of human rights, the many challenges of development must be addressed in ways that will protect children as well as support growing economies. They bring into focus the interdependence of all aspects of change, which must be acknowledged if children are to be both rightful beneficiaries and effective participants in the continuing development of Latin America.

Although most Latin American countries are considered middle-income nations, their child health and well-being statistics overall compare poorly with those of the United States. This volume, representing the fifth part of Project Latin America 2000 from the Helen Kellogg Institute, brings together contributors from the U.S., Latin America, and organizations such as UNICEF to consider the physical, educational, social, legal, and economic status and progress of children throughout Latin America, focusing especially on health and rights issues.In chapters concerning health, experts in biology and medicine address such topics as trends in malnutrition and undernutrition, iron deficiency, inadequate sanitation, and contaminated water. Other articles on children's rights by contributors from the social sciences and public policy consider a wide range of issues, including youth violence and homicide, child labor and education, adolescents and the penal system, and future prospects for children's rights. All of the articles contribute to a more complete understanding of the situation of children in contemporary Latin American development, creating a storehouse of information that will be useful to both scholars and policymakers.These contributors show that as long as children in Latin America remain victimized by poverty, malnutrition, injustice, and violations of human rights, the many challenges of development must be addressed in ways that will protect children as well as support growing economies. They bring into focus the interdependence of all aspects of change, which must be acknowledged if children are to be both rightful beneficiaries and effective participants in the continuing development of Latin America.

The concept of political culture is young—born from the need to explain the dramatic sociological and political changes that occurred in Europe both during and after the Second World War. The practice of examining the culture of political parties in depth through an ethnographic field study of a country's social structure is, so far, a neglected one.Larissa Adler Lomnitz and Ana Melnick rectify the lack of attention to this area with respect to Chile in Chile's Political Culture and Parties: An Anthropological Explanation. This volume examines Chile's political culture by considering its origin and the persistence of its "grammar," which the authors define as the ability of each member of society to function within social categories and rules. This "grammar," they believe, is what gives character to national culture.Lomnitz and Melnick argue that political parties in Chile are a conglomeration of horizontal networks of friends. Class is perfectly established within Chile's social tissue and is defined by a mixture of variables, including an individual's position in the economy, social network, religious beliefs, and life-style choices. The existence of social class creates subcultural layers in society, and these subcultures create a horizontally organized, class-structured, hierarchical society.In a political system such as this, characterized by its ability to contain strong political subcultures, it is crucial to guarantee the coexistence of these subcultures through the acceptance of a common legal framework or constitution. Respect for this constitution legitimizes the system and, therefore, legitimizes presidential authority. This constitutional respect is especially present in Chilean culture and is perhaps one of Chile's best-known political characteristics.From the tradition of the fronda aristocratica that determined the Chilean president, to the current coexistence of the Radical and Christian Democrat parties in Chile, this thoughtful synthesis of the elements that determine Chile's political culture is a valuable tool for all students of history, political science, and Latin America.

Matthew Cleary investigates the political sources of improved government responsiveness in contemporary Mexico. He draws on existing theoretical frameworks that explain responsiveness (the degree to which government output matches public preferences) as a function of electoral accountability mechanisms, direct participatory pressure, or a combination of the two. Cleary demonstrates that electoral competition is not the cause of improved responsiveness among Mexican municipal governments. Instead, he attributes responsiveness in the 1980s and 1990s to a prior qualitative shift in participatory politics that began in the 1970s and continues to this day. The inability of electoral competition to improve responsiveness is, Cleary argues, a function of Mexico's political institutions. The book demonstrates the implications of thinking broadly about the variety of strategies that citizens use, on a daily basis, to influence the behavior of politicians. The Sources of Democratic Responsiveness in Mexico exposes serious flaws in conventional understandings of electoral competition in Mexico. Cleary's careful critique of electoral accountability theory and his theory of participatory responsiveness address broader theoretical and conceptual issues that extend beyond the Mexican situation. The book will interest students and scholars of comparative democracy, Mexican politics, and Latin American politics.

In Violent Democratization, Leah Anne Carroll analyzes peasant and rural worker mobilization, as well as elite reaction, in Colombia's war zones over a period of twenty-five years and across three regions. Due to Colombia's long history of electoral democracy coinciding with weak state institutions, armed insurgencies, strong social movements, and violent responses from elites and the state, Carroll presents Colombia as a clear-cut national case of "violent democratization." Relying primarily on her interviews with leftist and social movement activists, elected officials, and some elites, as well as on electoral data and archival sources, Carroll reconstructs the political history of key county governments, providing a detailed account of the struggles for local power between elites, on the one hand, and rural agriculturalists and workers, on the other. Carroll analyzes the ways in which the tactics of social movements and elites shifted as national political trends moved from greater political freedom, rapid decentralization, and peace overtures toward guerrilla groups characteristic of the 1980s and early 1990s, to the reversal of these trends and the major escalation of armed conflict and U.S. military aid thereafter. In all three regions, peasant, worker, and neighborhood movements, aided by leftist elected officials, initially gained significant victories. Their successes provoked a violent elite counteroffensive against activists, involving both military and elite-supported paramilitary forces. In response, however, a second wave of activism promoted human rights demands and sought international support to confront the violence of both the Right and the Left. Within these commonalities, Carroll's three regional case studies (Uraba, the Middle and Lower Caguan Valley, and Arauca, producing bananas, coca, and oil, respectively) demonstrate how geographical location and the unique characteristics of the activist movements and regional elites (plantation owners, oil companies, cattle ranchers, and the military and paramilitary forces themselves) shaped each movement's tactics, unity, and success.