Latin America 2014

This comparative study of Latin American conservative politics over the past twenty years analyzes right-of-center actors, electoral movements, parties, and economic policy dynamics. Since the late 1990s, when Latin American countries began making a “turn to the left,” political parties and candidates on the right end of the partisan spectrum have had a difficult time achieving electoral success. Although the left turn can be seen as a natural reaction to the public’s general dissatisfaction with the conservative modernization policies of the 1980s and 1990s, left-of-center politics are by no means permanent. In The Resilience of the Latin American Right, Juan Pablo Luna and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser seek to “right” this view by explaining the strategies conservative political parties have used to maintain a foothold in the region’s electoral and governance processes. The editors provide an analytical framework for conceptualizing the right that works for both historic and contemporary politics, and the volume’s contributors use the framework to evaluate right-of-center political activity across the continent. They find that conservative forces are pursuing a range of adaptive strategies, including nonelectroral and nonpartisan tactics. The book’s four thematic sections include an analysis of parties and elections in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Students and scholars of both Latin American politics and comparative politics will find The Resilience of the Latin American Right of vital interest.

Pigmentocracies--the fruit of the multiyear Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America (PERLA)--is a richly revealing analysis of contemporary attitudes toward ethnicity and race in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, four of Latin America's most populous nations. Based on extensive, original sociological and anthropological data generated by PERLA, this landmark study analyzes ethnoracial classification, inequality, and discrimination, as well as public opinion about Afro-descended and indigenous social movements and policies that foster greater social inclusiveness, all set within an ethnoracial history of each country. A once-in-a-generation examination of contemporary ethnicity, this book promises to contribute in significant ways to policymaking and public opinion in Latin America. Edward Telles, PERLA's principal investigator, explains that profound historical and political forces, including multiculturalism, have helped to shape the formation of ethnic identities and the nature of social relations within and across nations. One of Pigmentocracies's many important conclusions is that unequal social and economic status is at least as much a function of skin color as of ethnoracial identification. Investigators also found high rates of discrimination by color and ethnicity widely reported by both targets and witnesses. Still, substantial support across countries was found for multicultural-affirmative policies--a notable result given that in much of modern Latin America race and ethnicity have been downplayed or ignored as key factors despite their importance for earlier nation-building.

This book provides a clear, broad, and provocative synthesis of the history of Latin American medicine.

The aim of this book is to analyze the quality of entrepreneurial management and economic development in the Latin American region from a microeconomic point of view. It seeks to explain the Latin American way of business management as well as envision ways in which Latin American businesses can increase productivity and innovation in order to successfully compete in the global market. Latin America comprises nearly 8.5% of the global population and represents over 8% of the global GDP, yet it is home to only 12 (or less than 2.5%) of the world’s 500 largest companies. In this volume, the author analyzes the unique dynamics of Latin American corporate culture to consider the particular obstacles to more successful performance. Drawing evidence from dozens of companies across the eight largest Latin American economies, he notes that Latin American companies have evolved in the context of a highly aristocratic and oligarchic society, dominated by patriarchal families from the upper classes. Corporate structure, especially in family-owned companies, is based largely on patronage and privilege and often characterized by unnecessary hierarchy, redundant responsibilities and poor communication and information management systems. Operating in relative isolation, with little incentive to invest in innovation to compete against foreign products has reinforced this conservative culture. Taking a fresh perspective that focuses at the firm level, with an emphasis on corporate administration, the author presents a compelling explanation for Latin America’s delay in economic development and offers insights for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, identifying promising industrial sectors and improving productivity and competitiveness on the global stage.

The Demographic Observatory 2014 contains selected indicators from the 2014 revision of estimates and projections for the populations analysed. The figures contained in this publication are a revision of those presented in the Observatory 2013 and include updates of the estimations and projections of national populations from 1950 to 2100, taking into account new information sources available. Future issues will incorporate new estimates and projections, also prepared using the component method, but by simple ages and calendar years.

The 2014 edition of Social Panorama of Latin America presents ECLAC measurements for the analysis of income poverty, taking, as well, a multidimensional approach to poverty. Applying these two approaches to data for the countries of the region provides confirmation that despite the progress made over the past decade, structural poverty is still a feature of Latin American society. In order to contribute to a more comprehensive design of public policies aimed at overcoming poverty and socioeconomic inequality, this edition examines recent trends in social spending and sets out a deeper gap analysis focused on three areas: youth and development, gender inequality in the labour market and urban residential segregation.

This book presents a new theory for why political regimes emerge, and why they subsequently survive or break down. It then analyzes the emergence, survival and fall of democracies and dictatorships in Latin America since 1900. Scott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán argue for a theoretical approach situated between long-term structural and cultural explanations and short-term explanations that look at the decisions of specific leaders. They focus on the political preferences of powerful actors - the degree to which they embrace democracy as an intrinsically desirable end and their policy radicalism - to explain regime outcomes. They also demonstrate that transnational forces and influences are crucial to understand regional waves of democratization. Based on extensive research into the political histories of all twenty Latin American countries, this book offers the first extended analysis of regime emergence, survival and failure for all of Latin America over a long period of time.

Aguardente, chicha, pulque, vino—no matter whether it’s distilled or fermented, alcohol either brings people together or pulls them apart. Alcohol in Latin America is a sweeping examination of the deep reasons why. This book takes an in-depth look at the social and cultural history of alcohol and its connection to larger processes in Latin America. Using a painting depicting a tavern as a metaphor, the authors explore the disparate groups and individuals imbibing as an introduction to their study. In so doing, they reveal how alcohol production, consumption, and regulation have been intertwined with the history of Latin America since the pre-Columbian era. Alcohol in Latin America is the first interdisciplinary study to examine the historic role of alcohol across Latin America and over a broad time span. Six locations—the Andean region, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico—are seen through the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, art history, ethnohistory, history, and literature. Organized chronologically beginning with the pre-colonial era, it features five chapters on Mesoamerica and five on South America, each focusing on various aspects of a dozen different kinds of beverages. An in-depth look at how alcohol use in Latin America can serve as a lens through which race, class, gender, and state-building, among other topics, can be better understood, Alcohol in Latin America shows the historic influence of alcohol production and consumption in the region and how it is intimately connected to the larger forces of history.