Deepening Democracy in Post-Neoliberal Bolivia and Venezuela

Deepening Democracy in Post-Neoliberal Bolivia and Venezuela
Author: John Brown
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2022-02-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000546152

This book provides a timely and nuanced analysis of the successes and shortcoming of efforts to move beyond market democracy in Bolivia and Venezuela. A twin crisis of democratic representation and socio-economic precarity created space for anti-system outsiders to emerge on the left flank of traditional party-systems in Bolivia and Venezuela, paving the way for a "post-neoliberal" democratization process. Over the course of the projects headed by Evo Morales in Bolivia and Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, however, power struggles emerged between a recalcitrant elite, the left-led government, and organized popular sectors. These tensions shaped the pathways that processes followed, with simultaneous democratization and de-democratization occurring whereby a partial deepening and extending of democratic quality for popular sectors was accompanied by the bending of liberal norms. Comparing the varying balance and forms of power between competing actors, this book offers a novel and rich explanation of the partial and stuttering efforts to advance a post-neoliberal democracy in Bolivia and Venezuela. Bringing important insights on the reasons for the emergence of anti-system leaders and parties, the impact that they have on the quality of democracy, and how progressive governments interact with social movements, this book will be of interest to researchers studying Latin America, as well as those specializing in development and political science more broadly.

Decoding Gender

Decoding Gender
Author: Helga Baitenmann
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2007-06-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 081354159X

Gender discrimination pervades nearly all legal institutions and practices in Latin America. The deeper question is how this shapes broader relations of power. By examining the relationship between law and gender as it manifests itself in the Mexican legal system, the thirteen essays in this volume show how law is produced by, but also perpetuates, unequal power relations. At the same time, however, authors show how law is often malleable and can provide spaces for negotiation and redress. The contributors (including political scientists, sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, and economists) explore these issues-not only in courts, police stations, and prisons, but also in rural organizations, indigenous communities, and families. By bringing new interdisciplinary perspectives to issues such as the quality of citizenship and the rule of law in present-day Mexico, this book raises important issues for research on the relationship between law and gender more widely.

Human Rights in the Maya Region

Human Rights in the Maya Region
Author: Pedro Pitarch
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2008-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0822389053

In recent years Latin American indigenous groups have regularly deployed the discourse of human rights to legitimate their positions and pursue their goals. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the Maya region of Chiapas and Guatemala, where in the last two decades indigenous social movements have been engaged in ongoing negotiations with the state, and the presence of multinational actors has brought human rights to increased prominence. In this volume, scholars and activists examine the role of human rights in the ways that states relate to their populations, analyze conceptualizations and appropriations of human rights by Mayans in specific localities, and explore the relationship between the individualist and “universal” tenets of Western-derived concepts of human rights and various Mayan cultural understandings and political subjectivities. The collection includes a reflection on the effects of truth-finding and documenting particular human rights abuses, a look at how Catholic social teaching validates the human rights claims advanced by indigenous members of a diocese in Chiapas, and several analyses of the limitations of human rights frameworks. A Mayan intellectual seeks to bring Mayan culture into dialogue with western feminist notions of women’s rights, while another contributor critiques the translation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights into Tzeltal, an indigenous language in Chiapas. Taken together, the essays reveal a broad array of rights-related practices and interpretations among the Mayan population, demonstrating that global-local-state interactions are complex and diverse even within a geographically limited area. So too are the goals of indigenous groups, which vary from social reconstruction and healing following years of violence to the creation of an indigenous autonomy that challenges the tenets of neoliberalism. Contributors: Robert M. Carmack, Stener Ekern, Christine Kovic, Xochitl Leyva Solano, Julián López García, Irma Otzoy, Pedro Pitarch, Álvaro Reyes, Victoria Sanford, Rachel Sieder, Shannon Speed, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, David Stoll, Richard Ashby Wilson

Globalization and Human Rights

Globalization and Human Rights
Author: Alison Brysk
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2002-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520232372

These essays include theoretical analyses by Richard Falk, Jack Donnelly and James Rosenau. Chapters on sex tourism, international markets and communications technology bring fresh perspectives to emerging issues. The authors investigate places such as the Dominican Republic, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Human Rights, Culture and Context

Human Rights, Culture and Context
Author: Richard Wilson
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1997
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Drawing on case studies from around the world - including Iran, Guatemala, USA and Mexico - this collection documents how transnational human rights discourses and legal institutions are materialised, imposed, resisted and transformed in a variety of contexts.

The Politics of Memory

The Politics of Memory
Author: Ifi Amadiume
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2000-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781856498432

Binaifer Nowrojee and Regan Ralph.

Now We Are Citizens

Now We Are Citizens
Author: Nancy Grey Postero
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2007
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780804755207

The book traces current Indian activism in Bolivia, arguing that a new social formation is emerging to challenge racism and the harsh effects of the dominant neoliberal economic model.

The Legalization of Human Rights

The Legalization of Human Rights
Author: Saladin Meckled-García
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2006-01-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134234546

The concept of 'human rights' as a universal goal is at the centre of the international stage. It is now a key part in discourse, treaties and in domestic jurisdictions. However, as this study shows, the debate around this development is actually about human rights law. This text scrutinizes the extent to which legalization shapes the human rights ideal, and surveys its ethical, political and practical repercussions. How does the law influence what we think about rights? What more is there to such rights than their legal protection? These expert contributors approach these questions from a range of perspectives: political theory/moral theory, anthropology, sociology, international law, international politics and political science, to deliver a diversity of methodologies. This book is essential reading for those wishing to develop a clear understanding of the relationship between human rights ideals and laws and for those working toward the fostering of a genuine human rights culture.