Chapter 13: Dynamics of Political Transformation
General studies of political processes in Latin America include Gavin O’Toole, Politics Latin America, 2nd ed. (Essex, England: Pearson, 2011), Ronald M. Schneider, Latin American Political History: Patterns and Personalities (Boulder CO: Westview Press, 2007), and Harry E. Vanden and Gary Prevost, Politics of Latin America: The Power Game, 4th edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). Insightful analyses of the authoritarian regimes that prevailed in the 1960s and 1970s are Guillermo O’Donnell, Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism: Studies in South American Politics (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1973) and David Collier, ed., The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979). Paul H. Lewis offers a comprehensive overview in Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America: Dictators, Despots, and Tyrants (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); Juan J. Linz explores conceptual underpinnings in Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes (Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000). The dynamic between authoritarian regimes and opposition movements is presented in Juan E. Corradi, Patricia Weiss Fagen, and Manuel Antonio Garretón, eds., Fear at the Edge: State Terror and Resistance in Latin America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
Much work has focused on patterns of democratization. Paul W. Drake offers an insightful account of historical aspirations for democratic development in Between Tyranny and Anarchy: A History of Democracy in Latin America, 1800–2006 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009). A wide-ranging and innovative exploration of contemporary politics can be found in Peter H. Smith, Democracy in Latin America: Political Change in Comparative Perspective, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). An earlier study is J. Mark Payne, Democracies in Development: Politics and Reform in Latin America (Washington, D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2002). The role of citizenship is emphasized in United Nations Development Program, Democracy in Latin America: Toward a Democracy of Citizens (New York and Buenos Aires: UNDP, 2004). In Incomplete Democracy: Political Democratization in Chile and Latin America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), Manuel Antonio Garretón, a leading sociologist, examines Chile as a case study for understanding the consolidation of democracy in Latin America. An up-to-date and comprehensive compendium is Peter Kingstone and Deborah Yashar (eds.), Handbook of Latin American Politics (New York: Routledge, 2013).
The changing roles of political institutions have framed another focus of attention. The role of the military is analyzed in J. Samuel Fitch, The Armed Forces and Democracy in Latin America (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). The emerging roles of congressional bodies are analyzed in Scott Morgenstern and Benito Nacif, eds., Legislative Politics in Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) and in Morgenstern, Patterns of Legislative Politics: Roll-Call Voting in Latin America and in the United States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). The effects of neoliberal economic imperatives are detailed in Menno Vellinga, ed., The Changing Role of the State in Latin America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998). In Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006), Andreas Schedler has assembled cross-national comparisons of authoritarian regimes that rely upon the ballot box for legitimacy. The extent to which democracy has brought stability to Latin America is analyzed in Joe Foweraker, Todd Landman, and Neil Harvey, Governing Latin America (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity, 2003). For political trajectories in nine different countries, see Frances Hagopian and Scott P. Mainwaring, eds., The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America: Advances and Setbacks (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, the emergence of guerrilla movements fueled Cold War tensions. An excellent analysis appears in Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Insurgents and Regimes since 1956 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991). Jorge G. Castañeda offers a thoughtful assessment of the revolutionary left in Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).
There has been a rapid increase in research on women and gender in relationship to social movements, development strategies, and political empowerment. Prominent examples include Rae Lesser Blumberg, Cathy A. Rakowski, Irene Tinker, and Michael Monteón, eds., EnGendering Wealth and Well-Being: Empowerment for Global Change (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995); Christine E. Bose and Edna Acosta-Belén, eds., Women in the Latin American Development Process (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995); and Lynn Stephen, Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power from Below (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997). The political roles of women are analyzed in Nikke Craske, Women and Politics in Latin America (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999) and in Lisa Baldez, Why Women Protest: Women’s Movements in Chile (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Studies of gender and sexuality include Daniel Balderston and Donna Guy, eds., Sex and Sexuality in Latin America (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Matthew C. Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996); and Mala Htun, Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family Under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Comparative perspectives can be found in Jane S. Jaquette and Sharon L. Wolchik, eds., Women and Democracy: Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), and in Peter H. Smith, Jennifer L. Troutner, and Christine Hünefeldt, eds., Promises of Empowerment: Women in Asia and Latin America (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). See also Elsa Chaney, Women of the World: Latin America and the Caribbean (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1984) and Teresa Valdés, Enrique Gomáriz, Ninoska Damianovic, and Arturo León. Latin American Women: Compared Figures (Madrid and Santiago: Instituto de la Mujer and Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, 1995).