Download or read book Populism and Constitutional Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Andrea Sáenz de Viteri and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While constitutions are supposed to be stable documents entrenching a set of rules of the political game, Latin American and Caribbean constitutional development has been characterized by frequent change and instability. We hypothesize that the Latin American tradition for populist governments and heads of state explains this tradition. Contrary to established parties and interests, populist tend to aim at securing the median vote and be supported by non-encompassing interests. They also depict themselves as outside the regular elite and oppose the regularly conduct of politics. It may therefore be in the particular interest of populists to change the constitution to suit their specific needs. Exploring the frequency and direction of constitutional reforms in 42 Latin America and Caribbean countries, we find evidence indicating that populists are more likely to amend the constitution to concentrate power.
Download or read book Fixing Democracy written by Javier Corrales and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of institutions, a core concept in comparative politics, has produced many rich and influential theories on the economic and political effects of institutions, yet it has been less successful at theorizing their origins. In Fixing Democracy, Javier Corrales develops a theory of institutional origins that concentrates on constitutions and levels of power within them. He reviews numerous Latin American constituent assemblies and constitutional amendments to explore why some democracies expand rather than restrict presidential powers and why this heightened presidentialism discourages democracy. His signal theoretical contribution is his elaboration on power asymmetries. Corrales determines that conditions of reduced power asymmetry make constituent assemblies more likely to curtail presidential powers, while weaker opposition and heightened power asymmetry is an indicator that presidential powers will expand. The bargain-based theory that he uses focuses on power distribution and provides a more accurate variable in predicting actual constitutional outcomes than other approaches based on functionalism or ideology. While the empirical focus is Latin America, Fixing Democracy contributes a broadly applicable theory to the scholarship both institutions and democracy.
Download or read book New Constitutionalism in Latin America written by Almut Schilling-Vacaflor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America has a long tradition of constitutional reform. Since the democratic transitions of the 1980s, most countries have amended their constitutions at least once, and some have even undergone constitutional reform several times. The global phenomenon of a new constitutionalism, with enhanced rights provisions, finds expression in the region, but the new constitutions, such as those of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, also have some peculiar characteristics which are discussed in this important book. Authors from a number of different disciplines offer a general overview of constitutional reforms in Latin America since 1990. They explore the historical, philosophical and doctrinal differences between traditional and new constitutionalism in Latin America and examine sources of inspiration. The book also covers sociopolitical settings, which factors and actors are relevant for the reform process, and analyzes the constitutional practices after reform, including the question of whether the recent constitutional reforms created new post-liberal democracies with an enhanced human and social rights record, or whether they primarily serve the ambitions of new political leaders.
Download or read book Dismantling the Populist State written by Shahid Javed Burki and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Well-written paper discusses institutional reforms needed for dismantling the populist State. Contends that such reforms, no matter how painful, must be made immediately to consolidate gains from earlier reforms"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.
Download or read book Constructing Democratic Governance written by Jorge I. Domínguez and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1996-10 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Constructing Democratic Governance, Jorge I. Dominguez and Abraham F. Lowenthal bring together a distinguished group of scholars to assess how well democracy has been working in this volatile part of the world. The authors find that serious problems still plague these new democracies. Many of these problems are related to the political institutions, including political parties, the civil service, and the justice system. Part I introduces broad thematic surveys of such key issues as the role of the left, conservatism, inequality, and indigenous peoples. Part II reviews the South American nations. Part III focuses on Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, including Cuba. In Part IV, the volume editors draw conclusions about the problems and prospects for stable democracies in Latin America. In addition to the complete hardcover edition, Constructing Democratic Governance is available in three paperback volumes, each containing the introduction and conclusion from the complete edition and organized for convenient course use.
Download or read book Constitutional Change and Transformation in Latin America written by Richard Albert and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past 30 years, Latin America has lived through an intense period of constitutional change. Some reforms have been limited in their design and impact, while others have been far-reaching transformations to basic structural features and fundamental rights. Scholars interested in the law and politics of constitutional change in Latin America are turning increasingly to comparative methodologies to expose the nature and scope of these changes, to uncover the motivations of political actors, to theorise how better to execute the procedures of constitutional reform, and to assess whether there should be any limitations on the power of constitutional amendment. In this collection, leading and emerging voices in Latin American constitutionalism explore the complexity of the vast topography of constitutional developments, experiments and perspectives in the region. This volume offers a deep understanding of modern constitutional change in Latin America and evaluates its implications for constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Download or read book The Inclusionary Turn in Latin American Democracies written by Diana Kapiszewski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin American states took dramatic steps toward greater inclusion during the late twentieth and early twenty-first Centuries. Bringing together an accomplished group of scholars, this volume examines this shift by introducing three dimensions of inclusion: official recognition of historically excluded groups, access to policymaking, and resource redistribution. Tracing the movement along these dimensions since the 1990s, the editors argue that the endurance of democratic politics, combined with longstanding social inequalities, create the impetus for inclusionary reforms. Diverse chapters explore how factors such as the role of partisanship and electoral clientelism, constitutional design, state capacity, social protest, populism, commodity rents, international diffusion, and historical legacies encouraged or inhibited inclusionary reform during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Featuring original empirical evidence and a strong theoretical framework, the book considers cross-national variation, delves into the surprising paradoxes of inclusion, and identifies the obstacles hindering further fundamental change.
Download or read book Courts in Latin America written by Gretchen Helmke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-17 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To what extent do courts in Latin America protect individual rights and limit governments? This volume answers these fundamental questions by bringing together today's leading scholars of judicial politics. Drawing on examples from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and Bolivia, the authors demonstrate that there is widespread variation in the performance of Latin America's constitutional courts. In accounting for this variation, the contributors push forward ongoing debates about what motivates judges; whether institutions, partisan politics and public support shape inter-branch relations; and the importance of judicial attitudes and legal culture. The authors deploy a range of methods, including qualitative case studies, paired country comparisons, statistical analysis and game theory.
Download or read book Populism in Latin America written by Steve Stein and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an introduction to the populist leaders who have dominated 20th-century Latin American politics. The authors profile those leaders who have had a profound influence on their country, including: Juan and Eva Peron; Lazaro Cardenas; Romulo Betancourt; and Alberto Fujimori.
Download or read book Populist Threat and the Limits of Constitutional Design in Latin America written by Evandro Proença Süssekind and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Authoritarians and Democrats written by James M. Malloy and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 1987 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the end of the 1960s, most of Latin America was under repressive military rule. Conversely, the 1980s have seen the emergence of formal, constitutional democracies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Authoritarians and Democrats describes these changes and the future prospects for constitutional government in Latin America.
Download or read book Challenges to Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Mitchell A. Seligson and published by LAPOP. This book was released on 2008 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Politics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America written by Daniel M. Brinks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analysts and policymakers often decry the failure of institutions to accomplish their stated purpose. Bringing together leading scholars of Latin American politics, this volume helps us understand why. The volume offers a conceptual and theoretical framework for studying weak institutions. It introduces different dimensions of institutional weakness and explores the origins and consequences of that weakness. Drawing on recent research on constitutional and electoral reform, executive-legislative relations, property rights, environmental and labor regulation, indigenous rights, squatters and street vendors, and anti-domestic violence laws in Latin America, the volume's chapters show us that politicians often design institutions that they cannot or do not want to enforce or comply with. Challenging existing theories of institutional design, the volume helps us understand the logic that drives the creation of weak institutions, as well as the conditions under which they may be transformed into institutions that matter.
Download or read book Institutions on the Edge written by Gretchen Helmke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-30 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does institutional instability pervade the developing world? Examining contemporary Latin America, Institutions on the Edge develops and tests a novel argument to explain why institutional crises emerge, spread, and repeat in some countries, but not in others. The book draws on formal bargaining theories developed in the conflict literature to offer the first unified micro-level account of inter-branch crises. In so doing, Helmke shows that concentrating power in the executive branch not only fuels presidential crises under divided government, but also triggers broader constitutional crises that cascade on to the legislature and the judiciary. Along the way, Helmke highlights the importance of public opinion and mass protests, and elucidates the conditions under which divided government matters for institutional instability.
Download or read book Technopols written by Jorge I. Domínguez and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years first Chile, then Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have abandoned decades-old authoritarian political regimes and state-directed economic strategies and moved toward democratized politics and freer markets. This volume seeks to understand the key roles of "technopols"--technically skilled, politically savvy leaders--in these transformations. It is based in part on elite interviews with each of the leaders discussed: Domingo Cavallo of Argentina, Pedro Aspe of Mexico, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, and Evelyn Matthei and Alejandro Foxley of Chile. All are major social scientists turned politicians who, the authors argue here, have themselves contributed to the formulation of the ideas that they eventually came to implement in their respective governments. Contributors are Jorge I. Domínguez, Javier Corrales, Stephanie R. Cobb, João Resende-Santos, Delia M. Boylan, and Jeanne Kinney Giraldo.
Download or read book Reclaiming Latin America written by Doctor Steve Ludlam and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reclaiming Latin America is a one-stop guide to the revival of social democratic and socialist politics across the region. At the end of the Cold War, and through decades of neoliberal domination and the 'Washington Consensus' it seemed that the left could do nothing but beat a ragged retreat in Latin America. Yet this book looks at the new opportunities that sprang up through electoral politics and mass action during that period. The chapters here warn against over-simplification of the so-called 'pink wave'. Instead, through detailed historical analysis of Latin America as a whole and country-specific case studies, the book demonstrates the variety of approaches to establishing a lasting social justice. From the anti-imperialism of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas in Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, to the more gradualist routes being taken in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, Reclaiming Latin America gives a real sense of the plurality of political responses to popular discontent.
Download or read book Latin America Since the Left Turn written by Tulia G. Falleti and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-01-03 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America Since the Left Turn frames the tensions and contradictions that currently characterize Latin American societies and politics in the early decades of the twenty-first century, when many countries elected left-wing governments in an attempt to reverse the neoliberal agenda while others continued and even extended it.
