Political Parties and Democracy


Book Description

Native scholars explore the relationship between political parties and democracy in regions around the world. The development of political parties over the past century is the story of three stages in the pursuit of power: liberation, democratization, and de-democratization. Political Parties and Democracy is comprised of five, stand-alone volumes that probe the realities of political parties at all three stages. In each volume, contributors explore the relationship between political parties and democracy (or democratization) in their nations, providing necessary historical, socioeconomic, and institutional context, as well as the details of contemporary political tensions. Contributors are distinguished indigenous scholars who have lived the truths they tell and are, thus, able to write with unique breadth, depth, and scope. They show the parties of their respective nations as they have developed through history and changing institutional structures, and they explain the balance of power among them—and between them and competing agencies of power—today.




Presidents and Democracy in Latin America


Book Description

This new textbook provides students with a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the presidents and presidential leadership in Latin America. Unlike other texts, Presidents and Democracy in Latin America integrates both political analysis and major theoretical perspectives with extensive country-specific material. Part One examines the developments in recent years in Latin American presidentialism and identifies different characteristics of society and politics which have influenced Latin American governments. The personalization of political life and of presidential government help to illustrate the character of Latin American politics, specifically on the type of political career of those who occupied the presidential office, the leadership style of these presidents and the type of government which they led. Part Two studies two presidents in each of six countries in the region which reflect the broad trends in the political and electoral life: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Each case study first provides the biographical background of the president; it outlines the political career of the president both inside and outside of a party, including at the local level; the popularity of the president at the time of the presidential election is given, as well as the mode of selection of the candidates (selection by party leaders only, by party members or by a primary). The relation of the president with the government or ministers, especially if there is a coalition government, is detailed. This textbook will be essential reading for all students of Latin American Politics and is highly recommended for those studying executive politics, political leadership, and the state of democratic governance in Latin America.




Elecciones y cambio de élites en América Latina, 2014 y 2015


Book Description

El presente volumen aborda el análisis de los procesos electorales de ámbito presidencial y legislativo celebrados en América Latina en el bienio 2014-2105. Se trata de elecciones celebradas en once países cuyo estudio se desarrolla en igual número de capítulos. Se cubren comicios simultáneos a ambas instancias en Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panamá y Uruguay. En El Salvador y en Colombia, aunque se celebraron en tiempos distintos, ambos tipos de comicios se consideran en el mismo capítulo; allí, las presidenciales precedieron a las legislativas con un año de diferencia en el primer país y las legislativas antecedieron por tres meses a las presidenciales en el segundo. Se recogen también en capítulos independientes las elecciones únicamente legislativas de México y Venezuela. Si bien el criterio temporal siempre puede calificarse de caprichoso en este caso sigue la preocupación iniciada hace ocho años de dar cumplida cuenta del acontecer electoral en la región, en el ámbito de los dos poderes representativos del Estado por excelencia. En efecto, este volumen da continuidad a anteriores trabajos. El bienio aquí analizado da cabida a un nivel promedio de elecciones presidenciales, si se tiene en cuenta el acumulado en la región desde hace 30 años, por lo cual es representativo del quehacer político latinoamericano. Así, la Tabla 1 recoge las 117 elecciones presidenciales que se han llevado a cabo en la región entre 19861 y 2015 cuyo resultado no fue cuestionado; su media es de cuatro procesos electorales por año y aquí el número de elecciones que se recogen son nueve.




Problems and Alternatives in the Modern Americas


Book Description

This volume explores several notable themes related to political processes in Latin America and offers insightful historical perspectives to understand national, regional, and global issues in the continent from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The collected essays focus on Latin American politics such as: political cycles, left-wing political parties, nationalism, progressivism, crime and resistance, violence, authoritarianism, and relationships with the United States, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay. The perspectives of the chapters presented an attempt to seek lines of continuity by highlighting traditional interpretations of new scenarios and refusing to impose a traditional and uncritical linear historical narrative. The fundamental objective of the volume is to provide a rational and critical political-historical explanation of Latin America since the early 20th century with the purpose, among others, of deepening understanding of the present.




Dominio Político: Permanencias Y Cambios


Book Description

Este libro es resultado de un trabajo colectivo llevado adelante por un grupo de investigadores de distintos perfiles, orígenes institucionales y hasta de diferentes edades. La idea que los convocó fue la posibilidad de desarrollar, a partir de la construcción de la noción dominio político, algunos de los ya clásicos problemas tratados por la Ciencia Política. Las cuestiones de orden metodológico, las correspondientes al Estado, la democracia, la representación, la ciudadanía y los movimientos sociales se tomaron como casos testigos del desafío teórico asumido. Estos fenómenos debían ser construidos en sus propias singularidades para ser enmarcados en el cuadro ofrecido por el dominio político como noción devenida en categoría-instrumento.




Politics and Political Elites in Latin America


Book Description

This book presents in-depth analyses of the data gathered for 26 years by the Political Elites of Latin America project (PELA), the most comprehensive database about the topic in the world. Since 1994, PELA has conducted around 9,000 personal interviews with representative samples of the Legislative Powers of 18 Latin American countries, generating a unique resource for the study of political elites in a comparative perspective. Now, this contributed volume brings together studies that dig into the data gathered by PELA to discuss important topics related to the challenges faced by representative democracy in Latin America. After an introductory chapter that presents the potential of the PELA database, the book is structured in two parts. The first addresses in eight chapters important aspects of representative democracy such as political ambition, political trust, satisfaction with democracy, clientelism and the quality of democracy. It then discusses three relevant issues in Latin American political dynamics such as executive-legislative relations, women's participation as representatives, and the meaning of China and the United States in national politics. The second part addresses in five chapters studies of seven national cases that are representative of regional heterogeneity. These chapters aim to examine parliamentarian elites’ attitudes in different political systems with regard to a variety of relevant issues such as institutional trust, satisfaction with democracy, Executive-Legislative relations, clientelism, and gender questions. Furthermore, these chapters intend to evince the evolution of such attitudes in the course of the last two decades. Politics and Political Elites in Latin America: Challenges and Trends will be of interest to scholars and students of comparative politics in general and, more particularly, to those interested in the challenges faced by representative democracy not only in Latin America, but in many parts of the world.







Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America


Book Description

A dense web of private associations drawn from multiple social classes, interest groups and value communities makes for a firm foundation for strong democracy. In Latin America today, will civil society improve the quality of democracy or will it foster political polarization and reverse recent progress? Distinguished theorists from the United States, Canada and Latin America explore the diverse impact of civil society on economic performance, political parties, and state institutions. In-depth and up-to-date country studies explore the consequences of civil society for the durability of democracy in three highly dynamic, controversial settings: Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.




Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance


Book Description

This global encyclopedic work serves as a comprehensive collection of global scholarship regarding the vast fields of public administration, public policy, governance, and management. Written and edited by leading international scholars and practitioners, this exhaustive resource covers all areas of the above fields and their numerous subfields of study. In keeping with the multidisciplinary spirit of these fields and subfields, the entries make use of various theoretical, empirical, analytical, practical, and methodological bases of knowledge. Expanded and updated, the second edition includes over a thousand of new entries representing the most current research in public administration, public policy, governance, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, and management covering such important sub-areas as: 1. organization theory, behavior, change and development; 2. administrative theory and practice; 3. Bureaucracy; 4. public budgeting and financial management; 5. public economy and public management 6. public personnel administration and labor-management relations; 7. crisis and emergency management; 8. institutional theory and public administration; 9. law and regulations; 10. ethics and accountability; 11. public governance and private governance; 12. Nonprofit management and nongovernmental organizations; 13. Social, health, and environmental policy areas; 14. pandemic and crisis management; 15. administrative and governance reforms; 16. comparative public administration and governance; 17. globalization and international issues; 18. performance management; 19. geographical areas of the world with country-focused entries like Japan, China, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe, North America; and 20. a lot more. Relevant to professionals, experts, scholars, general readers, researchers, policy makers and manger, and students worldwide, this work will serve as the most viable global reference source for those looking for an introduction and advance knowledge to the field.