Economic Development Strategies And The Evolution Of Violence In Latin America

Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America explores the links between Latin American governments' economic policies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. Based on the patterns of ten countries, the contributions to this volume trace the remarkable transformation from open ideological conflict to the explosion of social (seemingly apolitical) violence, the upsurge of urban crime, and the confrontations over natural resources and drugs across the region spanning from Mexico to Argentina. The variations in economic success and in conflict prevention and transformation can guide policymakers, development professionals, and activists committed to conflict-sensitive development.

Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America explores the links between Latin American governments' economic policies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. Based on the patterns of ten countries, the contributions to this volume trace the remarkable transformation from open ideological conflict to the explosion of social (seemingly apolitical) violence, the upsurge of urban crime, and the confrontations over natural resources and drugs across the region spanning from Mexico to Argentina. The variations in economic success and in conflict prevention and transformation can guide policymakers, development professionals, and activists committed to conflict-sensitive development.

In this major work an economist with long experience as an advisor in developing countries explores the conflict between market forces and political reform that has led straight into Latin America's most serious problems. John Sheahan addresses three central concerns: the persistence of poverty in Latin American countries despite rising national incomes, the connection between economic troubles and political repression, and the relationships between Latin America and the rest of the world in trade and finance, as well as overall dependence. His comprehensive explanation of why many Latin Americans identify open political systems with frustration and economic breakdown will interest not only economists but also a broad range of other social scientists. This is "political economy" in the classical sense of the word, establishing a clear connection between the political and economic realities of Latin America.

Crime and violence have emerged in recent years as major obstacles to development objectives in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The paper explicates an agenda for future work that may assist LAC countries by discussing 'policy domains' where action is required. Such domains include reducing urban poverty, targeting efforts on 'at-risk' groups, building or rebuilding social capital, strengthening municipal capacity for combating crime and violence, and reforming the criminal justice system.

Although many scholars and practitioners recognize that development and conflict are intertwined, there is much less understanding of the mechanisms behind these linkages. This book takes a new approach by critically examining how various development strategies provoke or help prevent intrastate violence, based on cases from all developing regions.

This book brings together world-renowned experts and rising scholars to provide a collection of chapters examining the long-term impact of historical events on modern-day economic and political developments in Latin America. It uses a novel approach, stressing empirical contributions and state-of-the-art empirical methods for causal identification. Contributing authors apply these cutting-edge tools to their topics of expertise, giving readers a compendium of frontier research in the region. Important questions of colonialism, migration, elites, land tenure, corruption, and conflict are examined and discussed in an approachable style. The book features a conclusion from Alberto Diaz-Cayeros, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University. This book is critical reader for scholars and students of economic history, political science, political economy, development studies, and Latin American, and Caribbean studies.

This landmark book offers a comprehensive analysis of how development approaches have evolved since World War II, examining and also evaluating the succession of theories, doctrines, and practices that have been formulated and applied in the Third World and beyond. Covering all developing regions, the book offers an integrated approach for considering the entwined aspects of development: governance, economics, foreign assistance, civil society, and the military. With reference to carefully chosen case studies, the authors offer distinctive explanations for why development approaches fall short and systematically relate the evolution of development thinking to current challenges, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of key institutions and the clashes of institutional interests that have distorted otherwise sound doctrines and negatively affected development practice. In identifying the dynamics that account for shortcomings in past development attempts, and recommending a better integration of doctrines across the entire range of inter-connected development fronts, the book points to how development practice may be improved to better advance human dignity.