Studying Latin America, this text analyzes the extent to which economic and political changes have convinced business elites to strengthen their employer associations and to use them - instead of less institutionalized means - to influence the policy-making process.
"Devoting particular emphasis to Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico, proposes a theory of civil society to explain the economic and political challenges for continuing democratization in Latin America"--Provided by publisher.
This is a reader that applies the newest debates in political economy to the analysis of Latin America in a way that is thematically and theoretically cohesive.. Modern Political Economy and Latin America consists of carefully selected, edited readings in Latin American political economy. The editors, Jeffry Frieden and Manuel Pastor, Jr., include an introductory chapter, and a concluding article as well as brief introductions to all sections. These inclusions will make explicit the theoretical underpinnings of each article, and will highlight their respective contributions to the ongoing debates in Latin America. } Modern Political Economy and Latin America consists of carefully selected, edited readings in Latin American political economy. The editors, Jeffry Frieden and Manuel Pastor, Jr., include an introductory chapter, and a concluding article as well as brief introductions to all sections. These inclusions will make explicit the theoretical underpinnings of each article, and will highlight their respective contributions to the ongoing debates in Latin America.Latin American economies are undergoing profound transformations. And, in the wake of a decade-long debt crisis, the statist models of the past are giving way to a reliance on the market even as authoritarian rule seems to have ebbed in favor of new or reborn democratic institutions. As a result, the policy framework guiding economic and political development is likely to be fundamentally different. The analysis of Latin America needs a strong dose of modern political economy--one that can bring the area studies field up to date with the recent developments on the theoretical end of the economics and political science professions. This book helps fill that need. }
Globalization and Development draws upon the experiences of the Latin American and Caribbean region to provide a multidimensional assessment of the globalization process from the perspective of developing countries. Based on a study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), this book gives a historical overview of economic development in the region and presents both an economic and noneconomic agenda that addresses disparity, respects diversity, and fosters complementarity among regional, national, and international institutions. For orders originating outside of North America, please visit the World Bank website for a list of distributors and geographic discounts at http://publications.worldbank.org/howtoorder or e-mail [email protected].
This volume analyzes trade agreements in Latin America since the mid-1980s, and provides a theoretical framework that highlights the political-economic tradeoffs entailed in different trade strategies formulated and pursued by different countries in the region. It contains detailed, empirically grounded studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the Mercosur block as a whole.
This edited volume constitutes the first available comprehensive business history of Latin America available in English. It offers a unique synthesis of the development of capitalism in Latin America that takes into consideration the complexities of each country, while simultaneously understanding broader commonalities. With chapters written by a group of internationally renowned senior scholars with a long trajectory in business historical research, the volume is divided into two major areas. First, the development of capitalism in some of the major economies of the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) through the lens of management strategic decisions and entrepreneurial activity. And second, the long-term evolution of factors affecting the region’s particular evolution of capitalism and business systems. They include the rise of environmentally sustainable businesses; the impact of crime on entrepreneurial activity; the evolution of family firms, the changing strategies of multinational corporations in the region; the evolution of business groups; the role of female entrepreneurs; and the challenges for conducting business in a region with poor infrastructure. This insightful collection serves both as a straightforward introduction for those looking for a broad understanding of the region and for those interested in conducting comparative studies between Latin America and other areas of the world. It will be of direct appeal to researchers and advanced students of business and economic history and international business in particular.
When countries become more democratic, new opportunities arise for individuals and groups to participate in politics and influence the making of policy. But democratization does not ensure better representation for everyone, and indeed some sectors of society are ill-equipped to take advantage of these new opportunities. Small industry in Mexico, Kenneth Shadlen shows, is an excellent example of a sector whose representation decreased during democratization. Shadlen’s analysis focuses on the basic characteristics of small firms that complicate the process of securing representation in both authoritarian and democratic environments. He then shows how increased pluralism and electoral competition served to exacerbate the political problems facing the sector during the course of democratization in Mexico. These characteristics created problems for small firms both in acting collectively through interest associations and civil society organizations and in wielding power within political parties. The changes that democratization effected in the structure of corporatism put small industry at a significant disadvantage in the policy-making arena even while there was general agreement on the crucial importance of this sector in the new neoliberal economy, especially for generating employment. The final chapter extends the analysis by making comparisons with the experience of small industry representation in Argentina and Brazil. Shadlen uses extensive interviews and archival research to provide new evidence and insights on the difficult challenges of interest aggregation and representation for small industry. He conducted interviews with a wide range of owners and managers of small firms, state and party officials, and leaders of business associations and civil society organizations. He also did research at the National Archives in Mexico City and in the archives of the most important business organizations for small industry in the post-World War II period.
In Central America, dynamic economic actors have inserted themselves into global markets. Elites atop these sectors attempt to advance a state-building project that will allow them to expand their activities and access political power, but they differ in their internal cohesion and their dominance with respect to other groups, especially previously constituted elites and popular sectors. Differences in resulting state-building patterns are expressed in the capacity to mobilize revenues from the most dynamic sectors in quantities sufficient to undertake public endeavors and in a relatively universal fashion across sectors. Historical, quantitative and qualitative detail on the five countries of Central America are followed by a focus on El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. The greatest changes have occurred in El Salvador, and Honduras has made some advances, although they are almost as quickly reversed by incentives, exemptions and special arrangements for particular producers. Guatemala has raised revenues only marginally and failed to address problems of inequity across sectors and between rich and poor.
The book provides new insight into the role of organised business interests. It supports the concept of political economy and demonstrates how it transcends the limitations of CPE or IPE, to form a coherent whole. The book maps the conflict, convergence and influence of organized business interests in the context of regional integration.
The focus for students of Latin America in the past decade has been on the political forces of the left and the so-called 'pink tide' presidencies attempting to bring about social and economic change in the region. However, there has been far less attention paid to the rightwing political forces resisting such change. Such opposition is being orchestrated by political parties, business, the private media and other social and cultural institutions and is linked to the 'soft power' of US diplomacy. In recent years its activities have often appeared to challenge the democratic process itself. Based on a variety of original fieldwork and evidence, this volume addresses the current trajectories of rightwing politics in Latin America in the face of leftist governments, the discrediting of neoliberalism, and the decline of US hegemony. It includes chapters on US policy towards Latin America; the role of US-based think-tanks; the influence of transnational business and of the private media; as well as offering country-specific chapters on key states with rightwing governments and on opposition to left-of-centre governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile. A revealing and important book for anyone interested in contemporary Latin American politics.