The Distributive Politics of Environmental Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Distributive Politics of Environmental Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean
Author: Isabella Alcañiz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2022-08-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1009263404

The study of environmental politics in Latin America and the Caribbean expands as conflicts stemming from the deterioration of the natural world increase. Yet this scholarship has not generated a broad research agenda similar to the ones that emerged around other key political phenomena. This Element seeks to address the lack of a comprehensive research agenda in Latin American and Caribbean environmental politics and helps integrate the existing, disparate literatures. Drawing from distributive politics, this Element asks who benefits from the appropriation and pollution of the environment, who pays the costs of climate change and environmental degradation, and who gains from the allocation of state protections.

Environmental Justice in Latin America

Environmental Justice in Latin America
Author: David V. Carruthers
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2008
Genre: Environmental justice
ISBN: 0262033720

Scholars and activists investigate the emergence of a distinctively Latin American environmental justice movement, offering analysis and case studies that illustrate the connections between popular environmental mobilization and social justice in the region.

The Politics of Social Protection During Times of Crisis

The Politics of Social Protection During Times of Crisis
Author: Merike Blofield
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2023-06-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1009415999

In 2020, as Latin American countries shuttered their economies, it became clear that effective lockdowns would require states to provide income support. In a region that has historically struggled to build systems of social protection, the effort to expand benefits was notable. Policies varied in scope and generosity, but in what seemed to signify a new era of state-building, Latin American democracies demonstrated a nearly uniform commitment to providing assistance to the poor. Why did some countries implement broader and more adequate programs than others and why did countries vary in their ability to sustain support over time? This Element argues that three factors explain cross-national and cross-temporal differences in policy effort: policy legacies, unified/divided government, and fiscal space. The study shows that in settings of crisis, the democratic politics of social policy expansion shift, with traditional factors like ideology and electoral competition playing a less central role.

Slow Harms and Citizen Action

Slow Harms and Citizen Action
Author: Veronica Herrera
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2024-03-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0197669026

Slow Harms and Citizen Action chronicles the struggle against toxic exposure in urban Latin America. By examining cities in Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, Veronica Herrera shows how local movements fighting for pollution remediation can ally with resourced outsiders for impactful change. Moreover, Herrera illustrates how the most successful environmental movements occurred in settings where established human rights movements had previously helped dismantle state-sponsored militarized violence. By unpacking human rights movements as thoroughfares for environmental activism, Slow Harms and Citizen Action sheds new light on the struggles for environmental justice in Latin America.

Innovating Democracy?

Innovating Democracy?
Author: Thamy Pogrebinschi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2023-03-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108587208

Since democratization, Latin America has experienced a surge in new forms of citizen participation. Yet there is still little comparative knowledge on these so-called democratic innovations. This Element seeks to fill this gap. Drawing on a new dataset with 3,744 cases from 18 countries between 1990 and 2020, it presents the first large-N cross-country study of democratic innovations to date. It also introduces a typology of twenty kinds of democratic innovations, which are based on four means of participation, namely deliberation, citizen representation, digital engagement, and direct voting. Adopting a pragmatist, problem-driven approach, this Element claims that democratic innovations seek to enhance democracy by addressing public problems through combinations of those four means of participation in pursuit of one or more of five ends of innovations, namely accountability, responsiveness, rule of law, social equality, and political inclusion.

The Post-Partisans

The Post-Partisans
Author: Carlos Meléndez
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2022-09-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108604137

Where party identification is in decay or in flux, alternative political identifications have gained centrality. In this Element, the author develops a typology of post-partisan political identities: alternative ways in which rejection of or the absence of partisan politics are defining political identifiers or non-identifiers. Based on original evidence collected through opinion polls in different Latin American countries, as well as applying an innovative measurement, the author shows the respective magnitudes and ideological composition of anti-partisans (individuals who hold negative partisanships: strong identities based on predispositions against a specific political party or movement), anti-establishment identifiers (individuals who hold many negative partisanships simultaneously), and apartisans (individuals who lack any positive or negative partisanships). This Element demonstrates the usefulness of employing these categories in order to better understand different levels of party system institutionalization, party-building, and partisan polarization in the region.

Costly Opportunities

Costly Opportunities
Author: María José Álvarez-Rivadulla
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2024-05-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1009503227

This Element investigates entrenched inequality in Latin America through a unique case of class integration in Colombian higher education. Examining a forgivable loan program benefiting 40,000 high-achieving individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, the Element introduces 'gate opening' and 'diversified networks' as mechanisms countering traditional inequality reproduction. Utilizing a longitudinal, ethnographic approach, it explores the evolving process of social mobility within an elite school, emphasizing subjective experiences and challenges. Despite educational gaps and stark social differences, most students formed cross-class friendships, completed their education, and achieved higher socioeconomic positions. Yet, in so doing they had to face several costs of social mobility resourcing to strategies such as camouflaging or disclosing, sometimes becoming culturally omnivourous in the end. The significance of a prestigious degree varies based on the professional labor market, with first-generation students facing more challenges in low quality or elitist markets where cultural and social capital act as entry barriers.

Conservatives against the Tide

Conservatives against the Tide
Author: Gabriel Vommaro
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2023-07-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1009418238

This volume in the Elements series addresses the success of conservative parties in non-authoritarian contexts in contemporary Latin America. It places the core case of Argentina's Republican Proposal (PRO) party in comparative perspective with Argentina's Recrear and with Colombia's Democratic Center (CD) party and the Bolivia's Social Democratic Movement (MDS) in an effort to understand their differing degrees of success in adverse circumstances. Based on long-term research using a variety of methods, this Element shows that success has been driven by three factors: programmatic innovation by personalistic leaders; organizational mobilization of both core and noncore constituencies; and elite fear of the 'Venezuela model.'

The Circuit of Detachment in Chile

The Circuit of Detachment in Chile
Author: Kathya Araujo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2022-08-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1009310720

This Element discusses the consequences on the social bond of the conjoint action of the economic and social model inspired by the premises of neoliberalism and of the powerful pressures for the democratization of social relations in Chilean society. It is based upon empirical research developed in the past fifteen years. The main argument in this Element is that these processes have had as one of its most important effects the generation of a circuit of detachment, that is, a process that leads to different forms of disidentification and distancing from logics and principles that govern social relations and interaction. It is a dynamic circuit consisting of four components: excess, disenchantment, irritation, and, finally, detachment. The Element analyzes this circuit and each of its components as well as its consequences for the social bond. It also includes a brief reflection on the impact of this circuit over the political bond.